Acting police chief Rick Johns raised concerns about the number of arsons and aggravated assaults in the city as the June 2025 statistical report was presented to the Moose Jaw Board of Police Commissioners this week.
Aggravated assaults rose to four year-to-date, compared to none during the same period last year and three in 2023.
“There was no risk to the general public and those were incidents involving people that were known to each other. All parties are identified and there are various levels of investigation at this point in time,” Johns said.
Overall, crimes against the person were down 9.5 per cent, from 295 in 2024 to 267 in 2025.
Arsons also increased, with three so far this year compared to none in the past two years. Johns said two of the cases involved a single suspect.
“In all three of those cases, they have been solved and charges have been laid as well,” he said.
Crimes against property were also down compared to last year, from 936 in 2024 to 611 this year, a decrease of 34.7 per cent.
Even with the decline in crime, the Moose Jaw Police Service’s calls for service continue to rise.
“As we’ve talked about in the past, criminal activity is a portion of what we do, but there’s also a very large portion of our daily activities that just involve attending to public needs, mediating issues and dealing with incidents before they get to that level of criminality in a proactive approach,” Johns said.
So far, calls for service are up 3.9 per cent, from 10,029 last year to 10,416 this year.