At least one resident in Prince Albert, Sask., says he is worried about violent crimes occurring in his city. He is hoping for change.
Nick Hudye, a local business owner, said it’s a bad time to be a resident in PA.
“If you ask me, within the last two years, we’ve lost our city, we’ve lost control,” said Hudye.
“There’s never been more concerning, more frightening, and a more shameful time to be a resident in the city of Prince Albert.”
The Crime Severity Index released this week by Statistics Canada puts Prince Albert among the top five cities for most violent crime in Canada for nine of the past ten years.
Prince Albert Police Service said in a release the Crime Severity Index does not accurately reflect the amount of people officers have to deal with, saying that they police a community about five times larger than what the census population is listed as for PA.
“On average, the Prince Albert Police Service continues to police a much larger community than Census statistics show. Our retail population, or the number of people who come to our community each day for services, medical appointments, or entertainment, is closer to 190,000 people,” read the statement from the police service.
The release also noted that they are seeing more violent crime, but it’s not just their community that is seeing this trend.
“The 2021 rankings reflect an upward trend in violent crime that our service, and others across western Canada, continue to see. As our police members respond to an increasing number of calls for service each year, we continue to see more files involving guns, weapons, drugs and violence given the core population numbers for our community.”
“For the third consecutive year, the national homicide rate has increased, with the highest rates noted in Saskatchewan (5.93 homicides per 100,000 people) and Manitoba (4.41 homicides per 100,000 population),” added the statement.
It was also noted that the number of homicides continues to be higher among Indigenous and racialized people.
The Prince Albert Police Service said they are adding more officers to the roster, having added nine more since last fall with another four undergoing training in Regina this week.
Warren Silver, an analyst with Statistics Canada, noted that many communities across Canada run into the same situation with the Crime Severity Index.
“It is a valid concern, but I think that it’s something that happens consistently across the country. So whether you’re in Saskatoon, or Regina, or Prince Albert, I think that all of the surrounding communities will be going into the large cities to partake in entertainment and everything, and so the population of those cities do swell at certain times.”
Silver added that’s part of the reason they only compare cities of a certain size to each other for the census metropolitan area table, which Prince Albert doesn’t meet the threshold of, and don’t include smaller communities.
” I would say that each area should take this as one tool to explain that this is what crime looks like, but definitely take into account if you have other considerations as well.”
In March, 95 per cent of Prince Albert Police Association members voted non-confidence in the city’s Police Chief Jonathan Bergen, and Hudye wants Bergen to step down.
“What world do we live in where it’s OK to have a 95 per cent vote of non-confidence against someone, and continue to keep going with that same person as our city continues to get more and more dangerous?”
Global News reached out to the Prince Albert Police Service and the Prince Albert City Council for comment, but they did not respond by the deadline.