The RCMP’s Saskatchewan Enforcement Response Teams in 2024 made 827 arrests and more than a thousand charges were laid.

Saskatchewan RCMP’s SERT – which includes Crime Reduction Teams (CRT), the Human Trafficking and Counter Exploitation Unit (HTCEU), Offender Management Unit (OMU), Saskatchewan Trafficking Response Teams (STRT) and Warrant Enforcement and Suppression Teams (WEST) – is located in 10 different communities.

The RCMP say their data shows there are more victims of violent crime in the province and those victims are experiencing more severe forms of violence.

SERT uses intelligence, evidence-based policing as well as analysis of community crime trends, all in consultation with local leadership. For example, early last year RCMP officers with the Prince Albert CRT, in collaboration with Hudson Bay Detachment, began an investigation into firearms trafficking in the Hudson Bay area.

As a result a search warrant was executed at a home in Veillardville which is 12 kilometres west of Hudson Bay and RCMP seized 40 rifles, two handguns, approximately 20 additional firearms in various states of disassemble, more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition, powder and rifle casings used to reload shells, boxes of prohibited high capacity rifle magazines, two crates of illegal cigarettes, mint coins and gold jewelry investigators believe are stolen, as well as small amounts of cocaine and methamphetamine, and other drug trafficking paraphernalia.

One individual was arrested and charged with various drug and weapon offences. In a news release, Insp. Jeff Smoliak, Saskatchewan RCMP’s SERT Senior Investigative Office says, ” By removing dozens of firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition from the illicit market, our teams prevented these weapons from potentially falling into the hands of criminals and gang members who could use them to harm and intimidate community member.”