REGINA -- The Regina Police Service is reporting a decrease in total crimes against people and property, but an increase in other sexual crimes from last fall.

Police reported a 2.5 per cent decrease in Crimes Against the Person and a 35.3 per cent decrease in Crimes Against Property compared to the end of October 2019.

The numbers were announced during the final 2020 meeting of the board of police commissioners on Tuesday.

Regina has seen a 45.7 per cent decrease in auto thefts and a 25.4 per cent decrease in the number of break and enters, which Police Chief Evan Bray said could be related to more people being at home during the pandemic.

There was an increase in arson, but Bray said officers managed to lay charges for those incidents.

In 2020, there have been five more homicides than 2019, which Bray said is mostly related to drugs or domestic violence, adding every homicide in the past two years has been solved by the Regina Police Service.

The chief added police stepped back from heavy traffic enforcement at the start of the pandemic, resulting in a 28 per cent decrease in traffic tickets. He said the service is now back to a normal level of traffic enforcement in the city.

SEXUAL CRIMES

Other sexual crimes which include  unwanted sexual touching and sexual contact with minors increased by 30.9 per cent. Bray said the Internet Child Sexual Exploitation unit has been very busy in recent years.

“We know that with COVID, with children earlier in the year not having access to school and with lockdown of people being kind of confined to their homes essentially, that those personal crimes could potentially be increasing and I think the statistics bear that out,” Mayor of Regina Sandra Masters said.

“So we’ll respond to a different call for service in a household and while we’re there we might end up investigating something else, so that has happened for us a few times this year as well” Regina Police Chief Evan Bray said.

Bray said there is a need for more technicians with the ICE unit, so more officers can be free for other work.

REWARDS FOR ONGOING INVESTIGATIONS

The board also voted on Tuesday to continue offering $50,000 rewards for information leading to the closure of the investigations into the 2004 disappearance of Tamra Keepness and the in 2010 triple homicide of the Htoo/Maw family.

“Anything we can do to continue having that conversation every year to promote their solving is a good idea in my opinion,” Masters said.

“Offering the reward is just one more option for us to hopefully get that piece of information” Bray said.

Bray said investigators are looking into a recent social media post that questioned whether Keepness had been identified.

“That’s part of an ongoing investigation that’s happening as we speak. There’s been work done to try and dig into this newest piece of information and any piece of information we get,” Bray said.

Anyone with information in these cases is encouraged to contact Police.