The Weyburn Police Services weekly report revealed the number of service calls from last week is below average. This prompted the question of whether hotter temperatures affect the tendency of people to commit crimes.
Police Chief Jamie Blunden says he’s experienced many environmental conditions that affect people’s behavior.
“I think there's a lot of things that play a factor, you know, people talk about full moons and in my time, 35 years on the job and probably 25 of that on the street, I think full moons play a little bit of a part of that. The heat certainly does as well, summertime, when the heat usually comes on, sometimes you see the spike in crime rates at that point, or calls for service, and in this particular case, we have less calls for service.”
Chief Blunden also mentions that people being out with family in the summer weather reduces the rate of crime. He also accredits the actions of the officers themselves as making an impact.
“I'd like to think that maybe our presence on the streets and making sure that people see the police doing their patrols has a factor in that as well.”