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Melfort places fifth out of 16 Sask. municipalities on 2020 Crime Severity Index

The severity of crime within Melfort’s city boundaries has risen in 2020, but has gone down in the surrounding rural region.
Melfort RCMP
Melfort ranked fifth out of 16 municipalities scored by Statistics Canada’s Crime Severity Index.

MELFORT — The severity of crime within Melfort’s city boundaries has risen in 2020, but has gone down in the surrounding rural region.

Statistics Canada’s Crime Severity Index (CSI) was released July 27. It measures changes in the level of severity of crime in Canada from year to year. Crimes are assigned weights according to their “level of seriousness,” which is based on the severity of sentences for crimes.

The index includes all Criminal Code violations, including traffic and drug violations and all federal statutes.

Within the City of Melfort, the CSI score was 133 in 2020. It was 99.02 in 2019 and 68.07 in 2018. 

Of 16 municipalities that received scores, Melfort ranked fifth. Of 93 policing districts that received scores, the city ranked 41st.

The rural areas around Melfort got a score of 72.89 in 2020. It was 103.42 in 2019 and 58.12 in 2018. Out of 93 policing districts, rural Melfort ranked 66th.

Police reported they dealt with 702 total incidents within the City of Melfort in 2020, and 528 in the rural region. In 2019, the city saw 576 incidents, while the rural area saw 553.

As a whole, Saskatchewan had a CSI score of 141.11 in 2020, a decrease from 2019’s score of 149.64.

The highest CSI in the province was seen in Black Lake, with a score of 1,153.72. The municipality with the highest score was North Battleford at 421.52.

However, data for detachment areas with relatively low populations “should be used with caution,” according to Statistics Canada. Low populations can explain, to some degree, why index scores can be high.

  Rank 2020 CSI 2020 CSI 2019 CSI 2018 Incidents 2020
Saskatchewan   141.11 149.64 140.74 144,085
Black Lake, rural 1 1,153.72 1,265.98 1,299.36 3,225
Sandy Bay, rural 2 971.14 921.35 698.22 1,489
North Battleford, municipal 18 421.52 444.36 386.34 6,375
Meadow Lake, municipal 19 371.38 347.31 344.75 2,083
Punnichy, rural 21 338.94 304.33 279.52 1,226
Prince Albert, municipal 28 249.28 279.31 239.39 6,889
Rose Valley, rural 35 178.52 216.48 192.3 708
Nipawin, rural 36 158.95 147.24 101.85 1,564
Carrot River, rural 39 136.33 159.15 120.91 484
Wadena, rural 40 135.39 126.54 92.41 664
Melfort, municipal 41 133 99.02 68.07 702
Tisdale, rural 42 130.88 105.73 75.41 620
Yorkton, municipal 43 128.56 155.6 149.35 2,437
Wakaw, rural 47 110.63 105.72 123.38 602
Regina, municipal 48 110.41 138.62 134.16 19,441
Weyburn, municipal 49 108.47 106.1 93.8 1,120
Estevan, municipal  50 108.27 90.28 90.51 1,196
Wynyard, rural 63 75.61 105.28 94.32 200
Melfort, rural  66 72.89 103.42 58.12 528
Humboldt, municipal  68 70.29 63.63 58.89 424
Humboldt, rural 74 62.38 56.87 44.44 413
Hudson Bay, rural 77 57.36 57.13 85.89 248
Watrous, rural 85 46.16 29.42 41.63 171
Warman, municipal 91 33.55 23.45 28.51 378
Martensville, municipal 93 30.66 43.72 37.92 384
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