In the month of May, the Prince Albert Police Service received 4,246 total calls for service. This was a small increase from the previous year. (Nigel Maxwell/ paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Crime stats

Steep increases in May for assaults and robberies in Prince Albert

Jun 22, 2022 | 3:57 PM

Prince Albert’s most recent crime statistics were presented during Wednesday’s Board of Police Commissioners meeting, and a number of areas related to violent crime stand out.

In May, there were 117 victims of assault, which represented a 72-per-cent increase from the same month last year.

When broken down, the majority of victims were women (46.73 per cent), followed by men (37.388 per cent), juvenile males (7.48 per cent), and juvenile females (8.41 per cent).

Also in May, there were 25 victims of robbery, which brings the year-to-date number to 69. This represented a 122.58 per cent increase from the same five-month time last year when there were 31 victims.

In 48 of those files, the suspect was not known to the victim. There have been charges laid in 18 files. There were 22 victims that were targeted, 12 were businesses and 24 were “open-air”.

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(Prince Albert Police Service)

The use of weapons in violent crimes has also increased.

Of the 704 victims of violent crime this year; physical force was used 318 times, threats of physical force occurred 49 times, a knife was used/brandished 71 times, a firearm was used/brandished 35 times and bear spray was used/brandished 25 times.

There were 54 victims of sexual violations. This is a 10 per cent decrease over the previous year when there were 60 victims. The five-year average for victims of sexual violations is 49.

For May 2022, there were 16 victims of sexual violations, which is eight more than the previous year.

Two files in May have led to charges while nine are still under investigation, and five are concluded with no charges.

Year-to-date there are six homicide victims, with two last month. Four homicide investigations have resulted in charges, and two are still under investigation.

There is some positive news to pull from Wednesday’s report. Break-and enters to residential outbuildings (garages) is down 51-per-cent year over year, and the number of charges related to drug possession and drug trafficking is down almost 70 per cent; from 53 in 2021 to 16 this year.

The number of reports related to arsons and impaired driving is also down from last year.

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nigel.maxwell@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell