Guns, gangs and drugs drive crime increases in Regina over last decade: Police chief

Statistics collected over the last decade and presented to the Board of Police Commissioners Thursday indicate crime is on the rise in Regina.

Regina Police Service chief Evan Bray said there are three largefactors drivingthe increase.

"When I talk to other police services and police chiefs they're dealing with very similar issues," Bray said.

"It's the same three, guns drugs and gangs, that are causing challenges and there's all kinds of provincial and national work and task forces to try and dig into this from a variety of different angles."

Bray noted that last yearattempted murders in particular increased, a trend he attributed to the use of guns in the commission of crimes.

He said the days of physical altercations between people are going by the wayside and that people are more often using guns or other weapons.

The stats showed crimes under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act are decreasing.Bray said that doesn't mean drugs are any less prevalent in Regina.

He said the quality of police investigation into drug-related crimes has changed, resulting in higher quantities of drugs seized in busts, rather than a focus on smaller street-level busts.

"Meth was virtually unknown to our community 10 years ago and in recent years we've seen increases of 2,200 per cent in terms of the number of seizures that we've done," Bray said.

"At the same time, cocaine continues to be a problem in our community and we've seen that increase over the last five years as well."

Bray said that guns and drugs often go hand-in-handand oftenwhen police execute search warrants in the city, both are found.

The police chief said the crime problems in Regina won't be solved by police alone and the root causes of crime need to be addressed to help in lowering the crime rate.

"It's not work that's easy to do, we need a lot of resources, not just from our police service, but I would say, more importantly, from our partners," Bray said.

"It's getting not only our provincial partners on board, but some of our community based organizations who are doing truly great work, so we need to continue to streamline that work."