Nipawin Town Hall. (file photo/northeastNOW Staff)

By Susan McNeil

Crime trends

Nipawin violent and property crimes almost doubled in four years

Apr 24, 2023 | 2:28 PM

Between 2018 and 2022, Nipawin saw a 44 per cent increase in violent crimes against people, according to a crime update that will be presented to town council tonight.

Much of that increase (21 per cent) was in the 2021-2022 year, reads the report from the RCMP detachment commander, Terry Posnikoff.

That was more than double the increase for the province which was about 17 per cent and higher than even the North District’s increase of 25 per cent.

In the same period, there was an almost 60 per cent jump in property crimes, although the growth in the last year was one per cent.

This also follows the same trend for the rest of Saskatchewan, which saw an 11 per cent increase in property crimes and a corresponding 21 per cent rise in the North District.

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Crimes that don’t fall in those two categories dropped over 20 per cent in 2022, said the report.

A bright spot so far is that 2023 does not seem to be following the same trend and persons offences have dropped 27 per cent and property offences are down 24 per cent.

“This may demonstrate how the arresting and breaching of the local offenders that are committing the vast majority of the crimes dramatically reduces the overall crime rate against people and property,” the report states.

Nipawin RCMP – with the blessing of town council – have for years made it a practice to focus crime reduction strategies on prolific offenders and perform frequent checks to make sure they are obeying release conditions.

In March alone, officers did 70 checks and have made good use of the town’s new back alley bylaw, which closes back alleys for use between midnight and 6 a.m. Breaches by prolific offenders have increased – or been caught – by over 30 per cent.

The bylaw allows officers to question people they see in the alleys during the times they are closed.

The revived Citizens on Patrol group has been training members and should be in full operation with in the next few weeks.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com