MOOSE JAW — The overall number of crimes against people and property in Moose Jaw continues to decline, the data show, but there are some categories — such as sexual assaults — that continue to see double-digit increases.
The Moose Jaw Police Service presented the August crime statistics during the Board of Police Commissioners’ Sept. 11 meeting.
The report showed that the agency had recorded 380 total crimes against the person year-to-date (YTD) — Jan. 1 to Aug. 31 — compared to 390 incidents during the same period last year, a decrease of 2.6 per cent.
Meanwhile, the data also showed there were 1,172 total crimes against property YTD compared to 1,592 incidents YTD during the first eight months of 2023, a decrease of 26.4 per cent.
However, sexual assaults caught the attention of Commissioner Patricia Martynook, since the data showed there had been 46 such incidents YTD this year versus 36 YTD last year, an increase of 27.8 per cent.
Martynook wondered why that category had increased and whether more residents were reporting sexual assaults than before.
More people are reporting these incidents, based on conversations with the Regina and Area Sexual Assault Centre (RASAC), said Police Chief Rick Bourassa. However, the “vast majority” of incidents happen within people’s social circles and are done by people known to each other.
“And it’s very difficult sometimes for people to come forward and report those because there are all these other sort of things happening,” he continued.
RASAC has had an office in Moose Jaw since May 2022 — it has been reviewing sexual assault-related cases that concluded without police laying charges — and has been providing services to traumatized residents so they don’t have to travel to Regina, Bourassa said.
The results of RASAC’s investigations have shown that Moose Jaw police have been “doing really good work” while residents are highly satisfied with the agency’s efforts, Bourassa added.
Crimes against the person
Data for crimes against people for 2023 versus 2024 show:
- Homicide: 0 / 0
- Attempted murder: 2 / 2
- Assaults (sexual, common, with a weapon, aggravated, against police): 272 / 244
- Robbery: 7 / 10
Crimes against property
Data for crimes against property for 2023 versus 2024 show:
- Break-ins (business, residence, other): 188 / 145
- Theft of motor vehicles: 35 / 41
- Theft over $5,000: 26 / 10
- Theft under $5,000: 784 / 520
- Arson: 1 / 0
- Mischief under $5,000: 230 / 167
Other incidents
Data for other incidents from 2023 and 2024 show:
- Impaired driving: 69 / 59
- Failing to comply with court orders: 255 / 587
- Threats: 38 / 10
- Domestic disputes: 41 / 38
- Provincial liquor infractions: 108 / 93
- Vehicle collisions over $1,000: 136 / 178
- Summary offence tickets: 1,519 / 1,407
- Automated speed cameras: 0 / 0
- Drugs: 32 / 17
All these numbers are “pretty consistent” with data that Statistics Canada is seeing across the country that are also declining, while Moose Jaw’s recent data reflect a decrease in overall community crime of 24 per cent during the past 20 years, said Bourassa.
However, while these are “promising numbers,” they are a snapshot in time and don’t reflect any trends, he continued. For example, break-ins — which have declined — usually come in “spurts” and are carried out by one or more persons. Once police make arrests, those incidents decrease significantly.
While overall crime has fallen, the police are responding to more non-criminal activity because residents continue to struggle mentally, said Bourassa. It’s “healthy” to see more service calls — 13,733 YTD 2024 versus 13,165 YTD 2023, or 4.3-per-cent more — because officers are good problem-solvers and peacekeepers.
“The work they do to address a lot of these issues early shows in our reduction in numbers of crimes through proactive interventions,” he continued. “As the crime numbers continue to drop, our workload continues to go. … that’s pretty standard across the country.”
Bourassa added that the police and crisis team (PACT) units are valuable since trained health personnel — and not everyday cops — can sit with people in a hospital for 10 to 14 hours during a crisis.
