At the regularly-scheduled monthly meeting of the Regina Board of Police Commissioners today, Monday February 25th, the Board was presented with statistics for December, 2012, as well as a report giving a ten-year picture of overall reported crime in the City of Regina and ten-year comparisons in various crime classes. For a complete look at this month’s reports received in the open portion of the Board of Police Commissioners Meeting go to:https://reginapolice.ca/police_board/2013/bpc%202013%2002%2025%20full%20agenda.pdf
The Board report entitled “PO13-3, Monthly Crime Statistics – December 2012”, which compares the year-end for 2012 to the end of 2011, shows a decrease in Crimes Against Persons of 4.7% and a decline in Crimes Against Property of 9.7% (pages 5-7). One of the largest decreases in violent crime was a 15.4% decline in robberies. On the property crime side, total break and enters are down 9.7%, with total theft showing a -14.9% change (or a count of 801 fewer incidents) from 2011 to 2012 (including theft under $5,000 and theft over $5,000).
In the ten-year report, the picture of crime reduction is even more apparent with almost ten thousand fewer crimes reported to police in 2012 than in 2003. Twice each year, once at mid-year and once at year-end, the Regina Police Service provides an analysis of reported crime in Regina for the previous ten-year period. The report entitled “PO13-5, Year-End Crime Statistics Comparison, 2003-2013” compares data compiled from January 1 to December 31 for the period of 2003 through 2012. The reduction in total crime over the last ten years is 35%. (Note: This figure does not include traffic and offences under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, which for the most part are enforcement-driven statistics.) This is Regina’s lowest annual crime count over the last 10 years. The categories of Crimes Against Property and Crimes Against the Person were also ten year lows.
This ten-year report, produced for the Regina Board of Police Commissioners is not intended for comparison with other jurisdictions which may use different methodologies or have different reporting criteria. This report is intended as a “Regina to Regina” comparison over a ten-year period. The data for these comparison reports is gathered in the same manner each year to ensure the analysis is reliable.
In addition to the reduction in total crime, some other highlights emerge in the ten-year picture: There was a reduction of 50.8% in Robbery from 2003 to 2012 (page 29); total Property Crime is down 47.6% over the same ten years (page 30); the statistics on Motor Vehicle Theft show a reduction of 60.8% in the number of auto theft occurrences from 2003 to 2012 (page 31), total theft numbers are down 45.0% in the past decade (page 31); total Break and Enter occurrences are down 64.3% from 2003 to 2012 (page 32). In the graphs dealing with enforcement-driven crime classes , there are upward trends indicating more focused enforcement, particularly in the areas of drug enforcement (page 35) and (motor vehicle) traffic enforcement (pages 36-37).
