At the Regina Board of Police Commissioners’ monthly meeting, the board was presented monthly statistics regarding overdoses, monthly crime, and the Ariel Support Unit.
Overdoses
The City of Regina is on pace to see a record number of drug-related deaths.
According to a report presented to the board, the City has seen 55 overdose deaths through the end of April. That number is on pace to break 2021’s 164 record deaths by one.
The 55 deaths through the first four months also mark the most the RPS has reported in the last five years.
Overall, police reported 169 occurrences of overdoses, with police attending 34 of those calls while issuing Narcan on three instances.
Ariel Support Unit
The Regina Police Services Ariel Support Unit has been busy and making an impact to start 2023.
Through the first four months of the year, the unit has flown 316 hours while helping lead to 121 arrests with 119 people charged.
Of the 119 charged individuals, a total of 262 charges have been laid.
Regina Police Chief Evan Bray said the unit has been invaluable so far.
“I would say an efficiency with how we are able to handle in-progress crimes. We are seeing time and time again an in-progress crime being called in, and in some cases, it could be a person feeling from the scene of a crime, a person falling to stop for police, and having that air-support unit in the air, gives us a guarantee in making arrests.”
“It’s been very successful in terms of how we’ve been able to close files, but it’s also saved our ground units hours of investigative follow-up that normally they would have to do,” he added.
While not included in the statistics, the unit recently helped in the arrests and charging three females earlier this week after they entered a residence, assaulted the occupant, and stole her belongings.
A 31-year-old, a 30-year-old, and a 15-year-old female were charged after being located by the Aerial Support Unit in the area of Dewdney Avenue and Robinson Street.
All three made their first appearance in court earlier this week.
Monthly Statistics
Through the end of April, the City of Regina has seen Crimes Against the Person and Property increase a combined 13.1 per cent.
Crimes Against the Person increased 15.9 per cent, while Crimes Against Property show a 12.4 per cent increase compared to April 2022.
Crimes Against Property reflect an increase of 395 reported incidents over 2022. Police have seen an increase of 224 reported incidents of Theft Under $5,000 for a 15.7 per cent increase, with 213 more reported incidents of Mischief / Wilful Damage for a 42.7 per cent increase.
Thefts of Auto rates have decreased by 16 incidents for an overall decrease of -6.3 per cent in their year-to-date statistics.
Crimes Against the Person reflect a year-to-date increase of 136 incidents. There were 15 reported Robberies in April for a year-to-date increase of six incidents or an increase of 8.3 per cent.
Overall the Regina Police Service received 531 more reported incidents of Crimes Against the Person and Crimes Against Property combined in 2023 over 2022.
Bray said they are seeing crime trending towards pre-pandemic levels.
“We are very much on par,” he stated. “I think if we’re to look at a ten-year comparison, 2023 stats, though higher than 2022, are still down from a ten-year comparison, but probably closer to those 2019 pre-pandemic numbers.”
Bray added that coming out of the pandemic, police nationwide are seeing crime increase to the pre-pandemic levels.
