Crimes related to the illicit drug trade have risen in Regina, according to the latest figures.
Two notable areas that have seen a decline are break and enter crimes and auto theft.
"We're seeing a continuing trend of reported crime being reduced in Regina," Troy Hagen, the police chief, said Wednesday noting that there were also more officers working today compared to ten years ago.
Regina's mayor, Pat Fiacco, also made note of the additional police officers and credited the provincial government for helping pay for more officers.
"There are a number of positions that are funded by our provincial government and it's important that they recognize it's money well spent," Fiacco said.
The latest figures show that, overall, there were 27 per cent fewer crimes reported to police compared to ten years ago.
Break and enter crimes, also compared to ten years ago, were down by 54 per cent.
Auto thefts were down 63 per cent.
The area of rising crime was in illicit drugs, which saw a rise, in ten years, of 137 per cent.
Traffic violations rose by 65 per cent.
The increases in those areas were attributed to increased enforcement.
Imagine if weed was legal for hardworking taxpaying adults and how much time and resources that would free up for the police to deal with the hard drugs, organized crime and gangs. Imagine how much of a dent legalized pot would put into profits of these gangs. That would be sweet to see.
ReplyDeleteDear Crime Statisticians from the U of R or whereber CBC is getting its data from: you recently told us that (a majority of) indigenous peoples in Saskatchewan (as represented by your study) don't trust police. Do you actually think that the majority of inidgenous people who are victimized by crime report it?
DeleteNo - they do not. And a lot of these victimizations are violent and perpetrated upon women and youth. So crime is not going down, it is just not being reported by the most vulnerable populations in society.
Yours truly,
A Forensic Sociolgist in Saskatchewan
Isn't the phrase "forensic sociologist" an oxymoron, especially given that the whole field of sociology is an "art" rather than a "science"....hence the bachelor of Arts degree.
DeleteTime to set up a few INSITE locations n Regina,, you know so drug users have a legal place to do drugs .This would certainly change the statistics and make Regina a much safer city ...............
Deletewow sazooky, that is quite left leaning of you. you think your con heros would go for that?
Deletedon't you think that getting the drugs out of the hands of the criminal element entirely would help even moreso? and thus the result would be much easier on our tax dollars?
yup, the endless 'failed' war on drugs rolls right along. costing us taxpayers more and more, all the time. just wait till all that 'easy' oxycontin isn't available anymore in sask. that's definately a good thing, but there will be some crime as result from that. desparate people do desparate things.
Deleteas for the bad driving convention that is saskatchewan, it also continues to roll right along.
Safe injection sites anyone? Free drugs to addicts? They do this in Switzerland. Crime went down 60%.
Delete3 cities here in Sask....said crime was decreasing?? now this report.... do you think,
ReplyDeletebecause tax-payers....were asking......if crime is going down......why are you hiring
more Officers! looks like they are minipulating the numbers....too justify their cause!
Same reason traffic violations are way up. They're overstaffed and therefore need to keep themselves busy as well as bring in some extra funding. I see them sitting around town just looking for an opportunity to bust you for going slightly over the speed limit.
DeleteTime for more unreported crime to rear it's head again. Crime can't be seen as going down by this gov't. It has become it's mainstay.
DeleteWhat happened to the boast about the economy? What have they really done?
Next thing they will tell us is Prohibition has been a colossal waste of money, time and lives.
DeleteProhibition = huge profit margins
Deletehuge profit margins = incentive/opportunity to push
Incentive to push = drug production/drug distribution turf wars/gang violence
PROHIBITION IS CAUSING THE CRIME, not the general drug use.
The system(prohibition) is actually creating the incentive and crime that they claim to be protecting us from. SAD. PATHETIC. TRAGIC.
WWW.LEAP.CC Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
The biggest drug smugglers in Regina have always been local politicians. Anyone who thinks there's a real "war on drugs" in Regina is a fool.
DeleteNo reason for weed to remain illegal, unless you're an extremist ideological Con MP that is...
DeleteReasons to not legalize :
ReplyDeletePolice would lose a huge amount of their budgets
No bad guys to blame and show the big busts from cops for headlines
Judges, courts, lawyers, jails all would see less income / budgets
Pharma corporations would see less sold of their "special" drugs
Oil corporations would see a green bio fuel alternative that is easy to produce
Paper industry would have alternative to trees, thus would harm the lumber industry
Clothing could be made from green materials verses the oil based nylons
USA does not want it, and pushes this idea to the world via trade restrictions
Easier to make it illegal and tax the people by implementing policies to enforce this (i.e. everyone pays for this) then to tax a weed that grows pretty much anywhere
So, with all of these things aligned against pot, do you think our government will change anything?
Do you actually believe that the government will do anything to change the money funnel from the poor / middle income to the rich?
As for a referendum, the government knows it would loose that vote and would never do it.
BC has it right, 4-20, just need to do this more often and right across the country.
If more and more people were charged and I mean every pot smoker, then the government would have to do something about the issue.
I can not see 30% of the population having a record and having to deal with the charges in courts for long, this would bring the system to a stop.
So want change, force the issue, force the courts to deal with every person who supports the legalization of pot.
When charged, fight the charge, request judge and jury, this will only slow it further.
When the system stops working, then change will come, they will have no choice as public outrage will demand this.