REGINA - Saskatchewan RCMP gave a report at a press conference Friday reviewing some of the highlights of its 2023 Crime Statistics and Yearly Trends report that was just released, while also giving an update on police work in the province.
Some of the takeaways from the event include an increase in crime across the RCMP jurisdiction, at the same time increased efforts to recruit more officers to tackle the influx of crime.
The report was presented by Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore, Commanding Officer of the Saskatchewan RCMP, and Chief Superintendent Ted Munro, showing both the positives and the challenges.
"The reality of the situation is that crime continues to increase across the Saskatchewan RCMP jurisdiction," Blackmore said.
She noted the RCMP polices about 46 per cent of Saskatchewan. However, the RCMP responds to and investigates 60 per cent of the total criminal code violations in the province.
Homicides see increase in past decade
"It's important to understand the complexities of policing," Blackmore said. "Evolving criminal activity and the resourcing realities that we are faced with on a daily basis."
In the last 10 years in the Saskatchewan RCMP jurisdiction, the number of homicide victims has increased by 275 per cent. The number of violent firearms offences has increased by 271 per cent. The number of assaults on RCMP officers increased by 79 per cent, and the number of assault offences has increased by 33 per cent.
"With an increase in crime comes a need for a larger police presence in our province," Blackmore said. "I'm very pleased to share that this year the provincial government has committed to funding our full complement of 1,047 RCMP officers. This welcomed commitment ensures we have the resources needed to help keep Saskatchewan communities safe. While we work to fill these positions, we are doing what we can to alleviate pressures on our detachments."
She noted the RCMP has implemented strategies to respond to increasing workloads, crime and the "complexity of these duties."
"This includes temporary amalgamations of some RCMP detachments, using new and innovative tools such as our unmanned aerial vehicles, which enhance policing techniques, and shifting resources to ensure workloads are manageable," Blackmore said.
Recruitment incentives
"We're committed to continuing our aggressive recruiting efforts to attract new RCMP officers to Saskatchewan," she added. "We have changed our practices so if you are recruited to the RCMP from Saskatchewan and want to return to Saskatchewan you are able to do that and have the opportunity to have a positive impact in your home province."
Blackmore noted that "law enforcement is only one part of the solution" for decreasing crime.
"Social issues like substance addictions, gangs and the absence of community resources are some of the root causes of crime," she said. "These issues are complex and take a concerted multi-agency response. The Saskatchewan RCMP is dedicated to continue to work with our partner agencies to ensure we can support and contribute to positive change in Saskatchewan."
Blackmore added each community is different and has unique policing needs.
"Ongoing partnerships and collaboration with local leadership allow us to identify what challenges the community is faced with," she said.
Despite some of the challenges, communities remain resilient to support their residents.
"I know and I hear first-hand of the important relationships our front-ine officers and employees providing operational support have with the communities they call home," Blackmore added.
She noted that the positive relationships RCMP officers have with the community "ultimately help counter criminal activity."
Munro provided additional statistics from the RCMP crime reports in the province.
He noted in Saskatchewan assaults on RCMP officers remain high.
"In 2024, we've seen an average of 41 police officers assaulted per month," he said. "From January to June this year, homicides reported to the Saskatchewan RCMP have increased 47 per cent compared to the same time frame in 2023."
He noted in the last five years, 44 per cent of people charged with homicides were on conditions, such as on bail, parole, or probation at the time of the homicide.
In the last year, the Saskatchewan RCMP police dog services responded to over 1,000 high-risk calls for service.
"Just in the last week, one of our police dog services travelled over 3,000 kilometres across the province supporting investigations," he added.
In the last year, RCMP charged over 1,700 people with impaired driving, and more than one-third of the all-fatal collisions involved alcohol.
From 2019 to 2023, the Saskatchewan Emergency Response Team (SERT) deployments doubled.
In 2023, SERT was deployed 94 times. And this year the team was deployed 52 times in the first six months.
"This only encompasses a small amount of the challenges and increasing workload our officers are faced with," Munro said. "As a provincial police service, we've implemented many new strategies, collaborated with our partners and enhances tactics to combat crime, both reactively and proactively."
He noted this last year it was ensured every detachment across the province has access to a remotely piloted aircraft system that's used to assist to apprehend criminals and locate missing people quickly.
"A great example of this was in Carrot River in June when we used our UAV to locate four missing individuals when the water rose and they were not able to get out to a safe location," he said.
Rural, Northern crime a concern
Among some of the questions reporters asked following the news conference, was a concern about a high number of rural crime and northern rural crime issues, based on the 2023 crime statistics.
Blackmore responded there are many factors driving that problem.
"It's a very complex issue for sure," she said. "Some of the things we're seeing are some of those vulnerable communities being impacted by gangs from outside of their community, outside of the province. We're seeing that impact certainly in those communities. It's something we're very intune with, and alert to, and making sure we're doing our best to address that."
Blackmore noted the RCMP are re-assigning their crime reduction teams to enter these communities to deal with prolific offenders, to address "the offenders who are most intent on causing the most harm in our communities, and trying to arrest those individuals. And, we have under our SERT program."
She added in 2024 alone, SERT teams have already arrested 336 people.
"You look at those numbers and there is a lot of work being done to address those prolific offenders to try to reduce those crime incidents within those communities," Blackmore said.
She noted communities too have a part to play to by reporting crimes whenever they are aware of them.
"Each piece of those crimes sometimes form a piece to a puzzle that we can put together to help lay charges or provide us with that piece of information we need to be able to prosecute individuals," Blackmore said.
She also noted that police are seeing an increase of intimidation by gang members on potential witnesses, which is another concern.
"We are doing our best to try to work with those witnesses, so that we can have them reporting these crimes," Blackmore said. "The justice system I think really needs to look at how they are addressing those individuals. When we have individuals who are charged with a serious crime and not held in jail, it's certainly intimidating for some of those witnesses, and causes more concern amongst them in their hesitation to report those crimes, to provide witness statements or accounts of what happened for sure."
Another challenge for more remote communities is dealing with social support needs. For example, there is a need for mental health treatments, and the ability to treat addictions in those communities, which face challenges due to their remote locations.
"It's certainly a multi-agency response that's needed to address these high crime rates," Blackmore said.
Complex crime
Across the province, the RCMP deal with a high number of complex crimes that require more members to tackle.
Blackmore noted a tremendous amount of work is being done by officers to respond to crime.
"If you look at the clearance rates. Our homicide clearance rates [show] 85 per cent of homicides [have been] solved. Those are very high numbers. So, I think it speaks to dedication," she said. "But we also have to look at the complexity of crime. We have to have more resources to be able to address those. Some of you may recall the homicide of Tiki Laverdiere. That involved over 100 investigators with 10 individuals being charged. That's just one file. So, it is resource-intensive to be able to work on these files and to be able to solve them... The employees are exceptional. They are focused on making a difference in the communities they police, and making sure that they can address crime."
The full RCMP report is available at the link below:
