MOOSE JAW — Statistics Canada — through the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics (CCJS) — has released information about Crime Severity Index (CSI) data for 2024, with Moose Jaw’s CSI level dropping nearly 12 per cent over 2023.
The federal agency released its report on crime statistics — which examines municipalities’ CSI levels — on July 22.
The index refers to a measure of police-reported crime that reflects the seriousness — violent or non-violent — of individual offences, tracks changes in crime severity, and gives a weighted rating to each incident. For example, a minor theft could be rated one and a murder could be rated 1,000.
Normally, the CCJS produces an information spreadsheet that compares CSI values for 330 police services in communities with a population of over 10,000 people and ranks those municipalities from 1 to 330. The data comes from the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) survey.
“Concerns were expressed about the use of CSI rankings without an appropriate consideration of local communities and the broader social context, which sometimes resulted in misinterpretation and misunderstandings,” the organization said.
Statistics Canada has made “new products” available to accompany the crime data to help Canadians understand and “appropriately use” the CSI data, it added. One new product includes information about the importance of considering critical contextual data when interpreting and analyzing crime data.
Moose Jaw CSI data
Data from Statistics Canada show that last year, the City of Moose Jaw had an overall CSI value of 103.87, a drop from 117.75 or a decrease of 11.79 per cent over 2023.
Furthermore, the municipality’s violent CSI value last year was 100.27, a drop from 104.20 or a decrease of 3.77 per cent over 2023.
Also, the city’s non-violent CSI value last year was 106.18, a drop from 124.15 or a decrease of 14.47 per cent over 2023.
Meanwhile, Moose Jaw’s weighted clearance rate — the ability of officers to resolve crimes — last year was 49.06, an increase from 40.96 or a rise of 19.78 per cent over 2023.
Furthermore, the municipality’s violent weighted clearance rate last year was 76.49, an increase from 73.33 or a rise of 4.31 per cent over 2023.
Also, the non-violent weighted clearance rate last year was 38.71, an increase from 30.10 or a rise of 28.6 per cent over 2023.
Meanwhile, a review of the online data tables for 2024 for overall CSI ratings in major Saskatchewan cities shows:
- North Battleford: 497.84, a decrease of 16.54 percentage points from 2023
- Prince Albert: 268.96, a decrease of 19.79 percentage points over 2023
- Yorkton: 169.00, a decrease of 7.59 percentage points over 2023
- Saskatoon: 117.49, a decrease of 10.36 percentage points from 2023
- Regina: 104.72, a decrease of 11.34 percentage points over 2023
- Swift Current: 109.67, a decrease of 3.93 percentage points from 2023
- Weyburn: 66.08, a decrease of 24.96 percentage points over 2023
- Estevan: 94.23, a decrease of 19.36 percentage points from 2023
- Warman: 31.66, an increase of 28.39 percentage points compared to 2023
- Martensville: 36.08, a decrease of 6.07 points over 2023
Overall, Saskatchewan’s CSI rating last year was 153.85, a decrease of 5.13 percentage points compared to 2023.
The Moose Jaw Express/MooseJawToday.com has reached out to the Moose Jaw Police Service for comment about this data.
