Regina crime down; police to launch new anti-domestic violence initiative

Despite an overallyear-to-date reduction in crime including a significant reduction in attempted murders Regina's police Chief Evan Bray says the city can't afford to let up on its efforts to reduce crime.

"We can't, as a community, as a police service, as individuals, take our foot off the gas pedal," the chief said.

He wasresponding to questions regarding monthly crime statistics for August tabled at a board of police commissioners meeting Wednesday.

The police service reports a 54.5per cent year-to-date decrease inattempted murders. Bray saidhis force has hadoperational success in taking guns off the streets and closing cases against offenders, and was quick to pointto work being done by local service providers.

We can't, as a community, as a police service, as individuals, take our foot off the gas pedal.- Evan Bray, Chief of Regina police

"Preventative, early-intervention service delivery and support systems really can make a difference in terms of outcomes," he said.

He saidimprovements to the overall mental health of communities is directly related to reductions in crime.

Sex crimes also saw a decrease, with reported sexual assaults down about 11 per cent and all other sexual crimes down nearly 33 per cent.

"When our crimes against the person are decreasing right now in the double-digits, that's very positive," the chief said.

The ability of the Regina police to cite significant decreases in violent crimes is timely, asRegina was shown, once again, to have the highest crime rate in the country for 2016, according to a Statistics Canada report released this summer.

• What are police doing about Regina's rising crime rate?

• Sask. has the highest provincial crime rate in Canada and the most severe crimes, too

Crime with 'domestic overtone' on the rise

However, not all crimes against the person are on the decline. Kidnapping and forcible confinement crimes rose nearly 67 per cent, year-to-date.

While that percentage changereflects an increase of only four crimes (up to 10 from six), Bray said these types of crimes often have a "domesticovertone" to them, which is indicative of a "big problem" with domestic violencein Regina.

"We need to come together and deal with it," he said.

He added that domestic violence manifests itself across an array of crimes and sometimes isn't even represented in statistics because many cases of abuse, such as mental abuse, aren't the focus of a criminal charge.

Police to launch new domestic violence initiative

In the next month, the Regina Police Service will be publicly launching a "whole new approach" to how it handles domestic violence, including a "resource and a web page," to try to help victims, Bray said.

The approach will look at not only addressing currentsituations of domestic violence but "dig into it a bit deeper" in the interest of preventing future violence, he said.

Overall, the report showscrime in the city is down 3.8 per cent, year-to-date.