A new select enforcement team from the Prince Albert Police Service will focus on crime suppression including gang activity and proactive enforcement.
Chief Jonathan Bergen says the goal is to get ahead of crime, rather than just responding to violence.
In the first 9 months of the year, the Prince Albert Police responded to 6 homicides resulting in 8 deaths, including 2 children.
Bergen says they are also working on a missing person case with suspicious circumstances and another person is in hospital with life threatening injuries.
In the same time span last year, there were 5 homicides.
The number of investigations where firearms have been used or produced are up at 56 so far this year compared to 32 for the same time period last year and 29 in 2018.
In 32 cases, guns were discharged.

Prince Albert’s Police Chief says the majority of the over 100 firearms they have seized so far this year are lawfully owned, then altered and cut down for concealment.
Police have dealt with fewer robberies this year with 56 up to the end of September compared to 96 last year in the same time period and break and enters are down from 360 year-to-date, compared to 533 last year.