Reflecting on 2019, Regina Police say there was one big issue the Queen City faced.
RPS says drugs continue to be one of the biggest problems involved in the city’s crime.
Police Chief Evan Bray says particularly meth.
“Methamphetamine causes a lot of challenges for us in the city. It is, I would say, the root of a lot of crimes we investigate,” explained Bray. “A lot of the high-risk and violent crime, often times drugs in general, but certainly meth, comes with the use of firearms in the commission of a criminal offence.”
Bray says that combination can be very violent and dangerous.
Meth was one of the most common drugs found and used in 2019 within the provincial capital. However Bray mentions that most of the time, it was imported from other cities and provinces.
“The ingredients needed to manufacture these types of synthetic drugs are readily available at stores here in Regina. However, the drugs that we are seeing in our city are being manufactured elsewhere and brought into our city.”
“That is a big part of the investigative efforts we do, that’s part of the reason we work collaboratively with the RCMP.”
The Regina Police Service says numbers of crime involving weapons and drugs have increased over the year, causing no shortage of problems.
Bray says violent crime numbers, like attempted murders, have increased significantly because of the use of weapons.
“Firearms are being used whether it be for assaults, for robberies, for intimidation factor. Again it’s very closely tied to drugs in our community and the gang issues that we deal with on a daily challenge basis are very woven together.”
He says there’s no one way to address this, yet police have to look at it from a bunch of different investigative techniques.
The police chief adds that RPS will continue to tackle the issues to keep the community safe.