Regina police report steady increase in crime over past decade

As 2024 reached the halfway point at the end of June, the Regina Police Service (RPS) analyzed its numbers for a mid-year report.

The report compares crime statistics to the previous year, and numbers from a decade ago in order to analyze trends.

Overall, there has been a steady increase in crime since 2015, which RPS Chief Farooq Sheikh maintained is a reflection of the city's growing population.

"There's some really valuable comments made about in the last ten years, you know, the population has increased,” he said.

Sheikh explained that comparisons from years past are made more complicated when a growing population is taken into account.

“At the same time, like I said, over the last year when I look at year to day crime, my concern or my main priority is to be able to look at ways to bring in crime data,” Sheikh explained.

That crime data showed various jumps from 2015, with 9,590 crimes in the first six months of 2024 reflecting an increase of 14 per cent.

Notably, crimes against people (or violent crime) was up 42 per cent from 2015, but down one per cent from last year. Robberies decreased by 13 per cent compared to 2023, but increased 23 per cent from 2015.

However, traffic violations were down 44 per cent from that 2015 mark.

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The report also noted 106 sexual assault reports, surpassing last year's average of 86.

Monthly numbers were also presented, and one particular area of concern for Chief Sheikh was the staggering 69 per cent increase of arsons in April.

July saw an increase of 20.6 per cent in arson related incidents. Chief Sheikh credits preventative action for the lower rate.

"We identified that most of the fires were just two garbage bins, so working collectively with the city, with the fire, you know, ‘Can we can we get those garbage bins emptied sooner?’” he explained.

“Can we make sure that we're patrolling in the right areas and can make sure that that we are proactively going out there and ensuring that we arrest suspects and what happens in a lot of offences, normally [a select] few offenders do most offences."

As Chief Sheikh marks his ninth month leading the RPS after taking over in December of 2023, he expressed some plans he hopes will come to fruition in the near future.

"It's about engaging with people,” he explained.

“One thing that I'm looking to do ... I'm looking to see where people do have cameras or CCTV or Ring doorbells ... will people be willing to register those with us so that we know where they are?"