Prince Albert Police Chief Patrick Nogier. (File photo/paNOW)

By Susan McNeil

Prince Albert Police Commission

New reporting ability reflected in new gun crime numbers

Jan 21, 2026 | 11:46 AM

Adding three analysts to their payroll has allowed the Prince Albert Police to collect more data but because they are so new, the service needs another year to be able to compare apples to apples.

The numbers for 2025 show an increase when it comes to crimes involving guns, the Board of Police Commissioners heard on Tuesday and it will be one more year before any firm trends can be determined, but the information is still very useful now.

“It’s the one thing that when you start taking a deeper dive and a closer look into statistics, is why are you seeing it?” said Chief Patrick Nogier. “And the very first thing is the more things you look at, the more you’re going to uncover.”

PA Police first started their current data collection method in 2024 and also created a strategy to deal with crime guns.

“Really, our data set started in ‘24 as we started to evolve with the gun crime strategy, became the full operation in 2025 and we will see really good comparisons going into 2026,” he said. So far, numbers show an increase in the number of gun-related incidents from 53 in 2024 to 118 in 2025.

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That is something that all cities are seeing, Nogier explained, especially when it comes to armed robberies.

“We have noticed that there’s been some significant incidents where individuals have had their vehicles taken at gunpoint,” he said.

Investigating officers will do their typical police work following such an incident, but the benefit to the police as an organization comes later with the information that comes attached to the gun used and the people using it.

“There’s also that follow-up work with respect to that gun being used in the commission of that offence and that’s when we’ll start to see a real return on the investment.”

Within the reported gun incidents, the amount of times the gun was discharged increased from 25 incidents to 67 incidents in the same time frame.

Nogier told the commissioners that any time a gun is discharged the potential for a death increases dramatically and it is fortunate that while the number of gun shots during crimes has increased, they only investigated one more homicide in 2025 (six) compared to 2024.

Police are tracking the number of times that an offender is on a release condition of some sort to collect data that can be used to change legislation or practices around bail, early releases from prison and community-sentence orders (commonly called CSOs).

“Individuals who are on bail continue to contribute to crime in our community,” Nogier told the commission.

In 2024, six people were charged with gun crimes while on bail but that number more than tripled to 19 in 2025.

There is a difference between bail, CSOs and parole/early release, as pointed out by Commissioner and city councillor Blake Edwards.

A key point is that people on bail have not been convicted of the offense they are charged with while the other two categories have.

How the crimes were broken in those categories was not included in the current report but may be added in the future.

Police said that the amount of people facing charges has increased simultaneously with 67 people charged last year, more than double the 2024 total of 28.

Crime guns seized by police were mainly imitation weapons (88), but seven were zip/slam guns (homemade), 68 were rifles, 37 shotguns were seized and 10 handguns were seized.

A dozen guns were seized or surrendered for public safety or mental health reasons, mostly rifles.

The number of imitation guns used is not a change, Nogier explained, but police still have to follow the same protocols as if they are real and generally look very real.

“You can’t treat it as a fake gun and work your way up. You have to treat it as a real gun and work your way down,” he said.

At the end of their meeting, the board of commissioners re-appointed Janet Carriere as chairperson and Cherise Arnesen was chosen to be vice-chair.

Other commissioners include Linda Greyeyes-Highway, Marlo Pritchard and Mayor Bill Powalinsky from the city along with councillors Edwards and Tony Head.

The commission meets monthly at city hall and meetings are open to the public, except for in camera portions.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

On Blue Sky: @susanmcneil.bsky.social