There has been about a 12 per cent increase in calls to police this year (2023), and the vast majority of the increase is due to social issues, not necessarily crimes.
The now retired Saskatoon Police Chief Troy Cooper in a review of the crime trends for 2023, stated that one of the trends since the pandemic has been increased calls for service related to complex needs with homelessness, addictions and mental health challenges. He understands that these aren’t necessarily crime, but they still need a police response. He considers this challenge the biggest story for police in 2023.

The presence of weapons has also increased, including firearms, but Cooper says what officers see most are knives, machetes and other bladed weapons. The Saskatoon Police Service gets about seven calls a day where a weapon is involved. Some are related to crime, but a lot of it is people living rough and in encampments who are protecting themselves, because, Cooper says, it is a very dangerous way to live.

Cooper is concerned about the domestic violence trend in Saskatoon, because it’s more than the potential for harm from a physical assault. He says, “We’ve seen homicides where there are some sort of domestic relationships, so we’ve had about a third of the homicides this year have some kind of intimate partner violence associated to it.”

The retired Police Chief understands that there are concerns for safety in some neighbourhoods and in public areas, and when crimes happen in public there is a double impact. First, there is the victim of the assault, whether it’s random or the victim knows the suspect or suspects. For the most part, Cooper says, they know each other. The second impact is that it also affects the public’s feeling of safety because they are witnessing violence. That’s where the Alternative Response Officers