Last month, there was a noticeable increase in arson cases in Regina.
The Regina Police Service (RPS) said it has seen an increase in calls for service as soon as the weather changes.
“Summer numbers for calls for service are always higher than our January, February where it’s ice-cold out,” RPS Staff Sgt. Cam Kauffner said. “We have two investigators that work full-time in our arson unit. They work closely with Regina Fire and Protective Services and they’re in contact with them every day. They are trying to work on it together. We work on every lead.”
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Officials are seeing an increased number of bin fires and trash fires in the central area of the city. According to the latest Regina Board of Police Commissioners report, there were 73 arson cases in April, with 20 of the reported incidents occurring in the Regina Core neighbourhood and 17 cases in the North Central neighbourhood.
“We’re seeing about a 50 per cent uptake this year so far, year to date from last year,” Regina fire Chief Layne Jackson said. “Investigators (from RPS) go out (to) confirm that it was intentionally set.”
In March, there were 31 reported arson cases, with 14 of the incidents taking place in North Central. There have been 144 arson cases in Regina so far this year.
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