The 2010 Crime Severity Index values released by Statistics Canada on July 21 show encouraging trends across most of the country-but the news is much worse in Yorkton.
A shocking spike in violent crime has pushed the city to the number seven spot across Canada in the overall crime severity ranking. Yorkton is in sixth place nationwide for nonviolent crime and 15th for violent crime.
The statistics, which cover 238 Canadian communities with populations of 10,000 and up, take into account both the volume of crime and its seriousness. Offenses are weighted based on their average sentence length in criminal court, then divided by population.
By this measure, Yorkton is worse off than larger, more notorious cities such as Saskatoon, Victoria, and Winnipeg.
In nationwide terms, crime severity continues to decline steadily in Canada; the national crime rate is now at its lowest level since 1973.
But Yorkton is one of a relatively small number of communities where the problem is actually getting worse. Between 2009 and 2010, the city's overall crime severity ranking jumped four places; the nonviolent ranking jumped one place; and the violent crime ranking jumped a staggering 22 places-from 37 to 15, due to a 67 percent increase in violent crime severity.
Yorkton's violent crime severity index value now sits at 205 compared to the national average of 88.9.
Saskatchewan as a whole fared poorly on the index. While crime decreased in the province as a whole last year, three of the top ten cities on the overall crime severity rankings are in Sask-
atchewan, with North Battleford taking the top spot. North Battleford came in second behind Thompson, MB on the violence ranking. Prince Albert fell in third place.
The slots on the other end of the rankings-Canada's safest cities-are generally filled out by Quebec and Ontario. British Columbia has numerous communities at both extremes.
Sergeant James Morton, NCO I/C of the RCMP's Yorkton General Investigation Section, says he is "baffled" by the dismal rankings of Yorkton and Saskatchewan at a time when the area is economically better off than most of Canada.
While a handful of isolated incidents can distort the statistics in a smaller centre such as Yorkton, Morton acknowledges a disturbing trend in the numbers.
The sergeant offers a few theories regarding the cause, the first of which is an increase in alcohol and hard drug use in the city.
"Anytime you're getting increases in drug abuse and people addicted, what ends up happening is they have to pay for their habit."
Thefts and property crimes are the result, says Morton; violent crimes related to trafficking or the psychological influences of drug use might also increase.
A cultural shift may be another contributor to the problem, suggests the sergeant.
"One of the things that I've seen, and I don't know why, is a lot less family values and parental values, where you know where your children are and what they're doing. There doesn't seem to be as much control over that anymore."
Morton rules out the causes commonly gossiped about on the streets.
"Most people will right away say, 'Oh, it's got to be because of the high aboriginal population, or it's gang-related.' Well, that's not what we're seeing.
"I can positively say we haven't seen an increase in gang activity. None of these crimes are gang-related that we've seen."
Most offenses in the city continue to be committed by Caucasians, he adds, and there has been no noticeable shift in that pattern.
As for what can be done to address the problem, Morton suggests that adding more police officers will not be enough.
"We need to deter, but we also need to educate. That's where the parents, the family values come in. People need to respect each other a lot more."
While the city's crime trend is troubling, Morton argues it is no cause for alarm.
"I still consider Yorkton a fairly safe community."
