REGINA - Regina Police Service is seeing positives from the latest release of the Crime Severity Index numbers for 2024.
“Crime has come down and that's really good news,” said Lorilee Davies, Acting Chief of Police for Regina Police Service, to reporters on Tuesday.
“I can recall the days when Regina was number one for crime severity and crime rate and so it's positive that for 2024 we ranked number nine out of the 41 CMAs for crime severity index, and 11th for crime rate.”
Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics released its annual comparison of police-reported crime statistics for 2024 on Tuesday.
For Regina Census Metropolitan Area, the Crime Severity Index for 2024 was 100.3, down 11 per cent from 2023 when it was at 113. For overall crime rate Regina is at 7,503 reported crimes per 100,000 population, down seven per cent.
Regina CMA includes surrounding communities such as White City, Pilot Butte, Balgonie, Lumsden, Regina Beach, Pense, and Belle Plaine.
Saskatoon CMA’s CSI for 2024 was slightly higher than Regina’s at 106.7, which also was down nine per cent, and their crime rate was 7,923 per 100,000, down ten per cent.
It was a similar story for most of the larger cities in the Prairie provinces which posted CSIs over 100, compared to cities in eastern Canada that posted in the 60-70 range.
Davies said that “if you look at those top cities you will note that they are by and large mostly western Canada, and I think that speaks to some of the larger issues we see in western Canada with crime and some of the problems that we have.”
When asked to expand on that, Davies pointed to Regina having “longstanding issues, I would say, in regards to vulnerable persons, marginalized people that tend to lead to, for example, higher incarceration rates. And so I think that we tend to see that play out in western Canada…
“Winnipeg, Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon are all kind of top of the list. We do see some British Columbia cities in there as well. So I think you know it's something that we are seeing in western Canada. If you look at the numbers for eastern Canada, Maritimes they are quite a bit lower and so you know it's not just a Regina issue but I think it is that sort of that larger issue.”
As for what is behind some of the decreases in Regina, Davies said some of the good things they could point to include “that higher visibility, when we see officers out on the street that tends to be a deterrent for crime.”
She also pointed to some “really proactive work” in terms of traffic, and “some really large drug busts with our drug unit” as pointing to decreasing crime and then there's lots of those proactive preventative measures as well.
“I would think so. I mean we don't have that obviously we can't tie A to B but I think any time that we're taking high amounts of drugs in our city off the street that is a good thing,” Davies said. “The people that are coming into our community and trafficking drugs are typically involved in other things such as weapons, violent offenses and so if we can hold those folks accountable, get them out of our community then I think that clearly there is a link to those decreased crimes.”
Davies also said they have a gang unit that work very proactively and also investigatively to deal with those issues.
“And so if we have for instance a few members of gangs that we know are tied into communities or into crime we will ensure that we are giving them a lot of attention and if they are committing crimes we're holding them accountable. So that work is a lot larger than just Regina and so we work really collaboratively with the other police agencies in the province to really get that larger gang picture so that we can work together on you know dealing with those problems for sure.”
Nationally, shoplifting has seen an uptick and Davies acknowledges that at the larger stores that is “something that we know is a pressure point.”
“We have a property unit that is working very proactively with retailers with loss prevention officers to try and get a handle on it,” said Davies, who noted it spoke to a larger issue of people stealing to find money for other things.
“I suppose it's good to know it's not just in Regina and certainly there is a lot of collaborative work we can do to figure out what are best practices that are working in other jurisdictions so that we can get a handle on it. You know we can't be a thriving community if our business community is suffering and so if we can work with them to address some of those issues that's really important.”
As for how things are looking so far in 2025, Davies was optimistic.
“So 2025 numbers right now are looking positive -- you know, I always want to knock on wood when I say that because we're halfway through the year. But we're down in all areas — crimes against person and crimes against property, except for arsons. Arsons continues to be a pressure point for us and we are working with the partners at the City, Regina Fire and Protective Services to try to figure out how we can get a handle on it, but for the most part we are trending in a good direction right now as well.”
Overall, there were not many surprises to the numbers for 2024.
“We knew what our 2024 numbers were at the end of the year,” said Davies. “It’s always interesting to see how you sort of flesh out in comparison to other jurisdictions… when we're not in the top five that makes me happy. You know, I always think that that's a good news story, but it doesn't mean that we still don't have work to do because it would be great not to be in the top 20 in fact.”
Davies did note there are some crime numbers police have a hard time controlling.
“Homicide numbers, for instance. You know, homicides are something that are hard for us to prevent. So those, you know, we don't have a lot of control over, but we hope that all sort of the other things that we can do in terms of being visible in the community, continuing those really good relationships with stakeholders in the community I think are always important. And then just working collaboratively with our policing partners, with businesses, with community. You know we aren't always going to have the answers and so we rely on our partners to try and help us out and just continue to be proactive and try and look for other best practices across the country and model ourselves that way.”
