Regina crime rate ranks 7th across Canada in 2022

When the Regina police look back at crime rates in 2022 compared to the rest of Canada, the statistics come as a mix of good and bad.

The Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics released its 2022 report that compares the reported crime rates across the country. Out of 35 metropolitan areas, Regina now sits seventh overall in terms of crime rate and fifth in crime severity.

Compared to 2021, Regina has dropped three spots in total crime rate and remained unchanged in crime severity. The crime severity in 2022 dropped five per cent from 2021.

“Historically, some years we led the country in terms of our crime severity,” Regina police deputy chief Lorilee Davis said.

“Clearly there is still work to do. I mean, we don’t ever want to be in the top ten but the fact that we are making some small inroads in comparison to some of the other jurisdictions in Canada I think is good news generally.”

The crime severity index is a statistic that gives greater weight to more serious crimes and is an alternative to the more traditional crime rate statistic, which measures the volume of crimes committed per 100,000 people in a given area over a given time.

The more traditional crime rate statistics remained largely unchanged from 2021-2022, with only a 0.2 per cent decrease.

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Compared to 2021, Regina saw an eight per cent decrease in violent crimes, a 51 per cent decrease in drug offences, a four per cent decrease in robberies, and a nine per cent decrease in vehicle thefts.

In the last decade, Regina has seen a fifteen per cent decrease in crime rates overall.

“In 2021, we had a very high number of homicides in the city and so when you’re speaking about crime severity, that obviously has a huge impact on the numbers,” Davis said. “Those numbers for homicides were significantly lower in ’22, and that had a big impact in terms of our crime severity index.”

Despite the lower numbers, Davis said there is still work to be done.

“It doesn’t really change the course of the work that we do in the city,” she said. “We know there is a lot of work to be done in relation to the number of firearms and opioids in our city.”

She said across Canada and in Regina, break-and-enters have been on the rise.

“We really can’t let our foot off the gas,” Davis said. “We got to be really proactive in our community. We got to think outside the box. We have to work really closely with community partners to address some of these complex issues.”