According to the Moose Jaw Police Service’s March statistical extract, crime rates continue to trend downward.
Crimes against the person were down 16.9 per cent, from 124 year-to-date in 2024 to 103 in 2025.
Acting Chief Rick Johns said he was a bit surprised to see a dip in crimes against the person, especially during the winter months.
“During cold weather, sometimes when people are shut in, there tends to be other issues that arise with respect to people being disagreeable with each other and things of that nature, but we haven’t seen that this winter,” said Johns.
Meanwhile, crimes against property are also seeing a decrease. There were 431 offences between January and March 2024, compared to 247 during the same period this year — a 42.7 per cent drop.
Johns did caution that these numbers reflect only the first three months of the year, and it is still too early to draw firm conclusions.
“It’s cautionary because it’s very early in the year, and as weather tends to improve, our calls for service and things tend to go up as well,” he said.
Drug offences were also down, from eight in 2024 to two this year — a 75 per cent decrease. However, Johns noted that drug-related statistics can be driven by enforcement efforts.
“We’re going to dive a little bit deeper into that too, because sometimes drug work is proactive enforcement. So, numbers can be a little misleading. It would appear that our crime rates are down with drugs, but it might be the fact that there are things currently under investigation that maybe haven’t resulted in a charge yet, or things of that nature,” he said.
One concern highlighted in the statistical extract is a continued rise in calls for service. The police service received 537 more calls for service compared to this time last year — a 12.4 per cent increase.
Johns took a positive view, saying that having officers respond to those calls could help prevent charges in the future.
“Sometimes, by addressing those social disorder issues that maybe aren’t being tracked here, that might have an impact with respect to our decreasing crime rates. Because if we’re doing the right things early on in those situations, it may stave off some potential concern over future charges,” he said.
Asked about the influx of people in Moose Jaw during the recent BKT World Men’s Curling Championship — and concerns about people parking in alleys and wherever they could find a spot — Johns said police saw nothing out of the ordinary that week.