REGINA – Regina’s mild winter was the hot topic at the Board of Police Commissioners March meeting Wednesday morning.
Mayor Michael Fougere who chairs the board was in attendance, including Chief Troy Hagen who discussed the striking February crime statistics, showing crime in Regina is way up.
“We’ve had an abnormally warm summer, or winter I should say, which means more people on the streets,” Mayor Michael Fougere said
Many of those people were actually criminals.
Year to date crimes against a person jumped 14 per cent. Property crimes have also increased 37 per cent and auto thefts are up a whopping 106 per cent.
“If keys were secured we would not, literally not be in this situation of rising numbers,” Chief Hagen said.
In fact, unlocked vehicles with keys makeup 60 per cent of stolen autos.
“You should take responsibility for your actions,” Mayor Fougere quipped.
Police said they will be re-tooling their auto theft strategy which was implemented in February 2002 and since then has seen an overall decrease of auto thefts by 70 per cent.
But with an increasing trend now emerging, the mayor wants to explore other avenues through SGI.
We introduced a notion of having some implications on your insurance if your car is stolen with your keys in the ignition or in the car,” he said.
However, lawyer Danish Shah with Butz Law says there could be difficulties going down that route.
“How would they be able to determine whether someone left their keys in their vehicle as opposed to someone whose vehicle was stolen out of their driveway?” Shah questioned.
Crime wasn’t the only focus of the meeting, a U of R justice professor brought forth a concern, questioning the re-hiring of constable Robert Powers, who lied about an incident with a homeless man and was later convicted of assault.
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“The chief’s original reason for firing Constable Powers stands, not only did he lie about use of force he was convicted later of assaulting eddy stone child,” professor Michelle Stewart said.
Powers was originally fired by the Chief for his conduct but a Saskatchewan Police Commission ruling meant Powers was re-hired.
Stewart contends that means the Police Act should be re-visited, but both the mayor and the Chief passed the buck to the province.
“It is what it is today, I mean we work within and I’ve always said we respect our governing bodies,” Chief Hagen said.
“This forum is not the forum to adjudicate or address a grievance here, it is with the Minister of Justice,” Mayor Fougere replied.
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