Prince Albert Police at a recent crime scene. (Nigel Maxwell/paNOW)

By Susan McNeil

Crime

Prince Albert crime ticks down in first six months of 2024

Sep 17, 2024 | 5:00 PM

Six months of data alone are not enough to declare an overall drop in crime, but members of the Prince Albert Police Commission were generally happy with numbers from the first six months of this year.

A recent spate of crimes notwithstanding, PAPS took almost 12 per cent fewer calls for service between January and June compared to the previous year.

Chief Patrick Nogier cautioned that those numbers can change, depending on the local situation.

“It’s always an ebb and flow situation where you have peaks and valleys of calls that coming in for service,” he said.

Nogier has made a point on multiple occasions of saying that to deal with crime, it needs to understood from an analytical point of view.

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He and Deputy Chief Farica Prince presented the Commission with a detailed breakdown of crimes in the city on Tuesday morning.

“Getting a better indication of which calls are up, which calls are down helps us try and determine where resources should be applied within the city,” he said.

Violent crime and homicides were down, with only one homicide reported by the end of June but between July and now, four more murders happened bringing the total to five.

READ MORE: City sees fifth homicide with death of 22-year old man

That is still less than 50 per cent of the 11 murders in Prince Albert in 2020.

Sex assaults have increased, with 80 reports so far this year, almost a 10 per cent jump. Charges were laid 23 of those incidents, 14 remain active and 43 were concluded with no charges.

Robberies have dropped so far, with 56 victims in 52 incidents. A map of the locations of the robberies shows that most happened in Midtown or Easthill/Southwood neighbourhoods.

One area that sees continued high numbers is property crime, an issue that is of major concern to residents, said Mayor Greg Dionne.

“This is the number one complaint,” he said.

In addition, residents feel that reporting property crime is pointless as the issue is not investigated.

PAPS made changes in how it approaches property crimes last fall. It was one of the recommendations in the ‘Knecht report’, an investigation into operations at the Prince Albert Police Service.

Former Edmonton police chief Rod Knecht was hired by the province to review operations.

The fifth recommendation was to prioritize calls.

Nogier said at the time that the public would see a change in their interactions with police.

People reporting minor crimes (such as theft under $5,000) are now directed to the PAPS website.

The incident is still investigated and an officer will work on the file, but an in-person response may not be seen.

PAPS still wants people to report, however, as they monitor the data for hot spots for criminal activity.

City councillors said during the commission meeting they were worried the public would resort to taking matters into their own hands.

Last week, the province announced that they would fund 17 additional officers in Prince Albert, part of an overall provincial increase of 100 officers.

It is too soon to say what that significant increase will mean for how investigations will be handled in the future.

With the addition of 100 municipal officers and the creation of the Saskatchewan Marshal’s Service (to be based in Prince Albert), recruiting for officers is intense at the moment.

Arsons have also increased with 29 reported in the first six months of 2024. The most common item to light on fire is a fence, followed by a residential outbuilding, the grass and vehicles.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com