photo credit: Saskatoon Police Service
In the first two quarters of this year,a crime report presented to the Saskatoon Board of Police Commissioners states that there were eleven homicides and charges have been laid in all but three of them.
Deputy Chief Darren Pringle added that charges have also been laid in longer term investigations They include charges from the murder of Darren Greschuk in 2006, the murder of Eagleson Thomas in 2020 and of Nicholas Bell in 2023. He said “We had charges laid in all of those three, and that just shows as a testament that if something happens in the city, we are going to keep working on it.” Although not in the first six months of the year, Pringle also pointed to the most recent historical crime solved – the cent recovery of the remains of Mackenzie Trottier this month, after a three month search of the city landfill. The suspect in her case can’t be charged, because he has since died. Mackenzie was reported missing in December of 2020.
The Deputy Chief also reported on following a recommendation from the coroner’s inquest about the tragedy at James Smith Cree Nation and in Weldon, which suggested there should be a dedicated team for warrant enforcement. There had been a warrant for Myles Sanderson’s arrest for a few months prior to the mass stabbings in September of 2022. Pringle stated that officers with the Tactical Support Unit had been working with patrol when not working on tactical operations. The decision was made to move officers to executing warrant enforcements for violent crimes such as assault, sexual assault and assault with a weapon. “In only three weeks operation, as of the time of this report, 24 people had been arrested on fairly serious warrants including 66 total investigations.” He explained that the premise is if these people are arrested, there should be fewer incidents of violent crime.
Pringle also added an explanation about the number of robberies, with 153 robberies in the second quarter of this year, compared to 110 for the same time period last year. He doesn’t believe these are all robberies, but they are categorized as such because of a definition used by Statistics Canada in their reports. Theft is defined as stealing property and robbery includes the use of force. Pringle believes many of the robberies should instead be considered thefts with violence. He explains that in many cases, someone is stealing something, like food, and a loss prevention officer tries to stop them, leading to the person bringing out a weapon or using physical force, but, “I would suggest it’s not your classic bank robbery or liquor store holdups that we have seen a spike in. It’s people steeling things they need, or stealing alcohol or drugs and using some violence to ensure that theft is completed.” He suggests it’s a socio-economic situation.
The crime report also states that the total calls for service in the second quarter of the year rose by four per cent compared to last year’s second quarter, at 41,998 calls from April through June.
