By Cheryl Jahn

Top cop releases crime stats for 2020

Jan 12, 2021 | 4:20 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The crime stats are out for 2020, albeit earlier than normal in order to, in the words of Superintendent Shaun Wright “put 2020 behind us as soon as we can.

For the most part, the COVID pandemic has meant the stats are off.

“The most significant trend I saw was a decrease in some of our property crimes such as break and enter and theft under $5,000 due in large part to COVID-19,” says Supt Wright.

In fact, if you look at the stats. many of the property offences went down, like theft under five thousand dollars because businesses were closed by COVID, while offences against people remained relatively static.

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But a big impact of the pandemic reaches as far as RCMP Depot in Regina.

“Our training academy was shut down for several months. It’s started up again, but with limited capacity. Whenever we have slow down’s in training it has a ripple effect that can last for several years.”

One of Supt Wright’s goals for 2021 is to create a more “liveable community.” He told Council that, often, police deal with high tension events and less-than-pleasant people and dealing with a break-in or a drug house in a neighbourhood may not carry the same weight as a homicide.

“But to the individual who lives next door and deals with that every day, it’s a huge issue and that’s their world. So, really, I want to re-focus our efforts to make sure we have time to deal with those issues and address what”s important to the people in the neighbourhoods.”