It was in the wake of Saturday's drive-by shooting in North Battleford that S/Sgt. Phil Wilson presented his monthly crime statistics report to city council.
The numbers for April were largely stable, with declines noted for property and criminal code offences noted for the month.
But it was the violence from the weekend - the shooting on the 1700 block of 104th street on Saturday morning - that had the attention of Councillor Ryan Bater.
"There was an incidence of significance on the weekend here that has caused considerable amount of concern to a lot of our residents," said Bater.
"The report I've seen suggests shots were fired from a vehicle towards a victim. The alarm that's out there is caused by the fact that to a lot of people this is consistent with what many see as being gang activity. I wonder if the staff sergeant can comment on whether the RCMP are aware of the presence of gangs in our city, and if so if there is a plan to address it."
"There are gangs in the city, yes, and we continue to address those issues," acknowledged Wilson.
"This particular incident, I can't say if it was gang related or not. It's still under investigation," noted Wilson. But he added "I would suggest it is not a random act, it wouldn't be considered a random act. It is an act of violence involving people who have a particular lifestyle."
When Bater asked if there was a threat to this being repeated, Wilson responded " there's no way to predict that. I wish I could say no, but I'm not going to predict that."
Other than that, Wilson presented more continued good news about overall crime numbers for April.
Calls for service were down to 1,049 for the month compared to 1,373 the previous month. They are down for the year to date to 4,075, down from 5,087 the previous year.
For the year to date through April, person offences are up six per cent from 249 to 264, and were up slightly for the month of April from 59 to 67.
Business break and enters are down 36 per cent for the year so far while residential break and enters are even at 31, the same number as 2012.
Criminal code offences are down 26 per cent through the first four months of 2013, to 479 from 646. Property offences are down nine per cent from 819 to 744. And drug offences are down 29 per cent for the year, to 113 from 160.
Liquor act offences are up slightly from 82 to 83. Provincial traffic offences have declined 45 per cent while impaired operation of motor vehicles have declined 16 per cent, though motor vehicle collisions have gone up from 75 to 116, a 55 per cent increase for the year.
