Chief Confirms Small Group Of People Commit Majority Of Crimes
By Robert Thomas
We ask Moose Jaw Police Service Chief Rick Bourassa questions about the “Notorious Nine”.
Nine petty thieves who MJ Independent was able to track as being charged with 433 criminal charges over a two year period
If you thought a large portion of crimes committed in Moose Jaw - including petty crime - were committed by the same group of individuals you would be correct that’s according to Chief of Police Rick Bourassa.
Answering questions from MJ Independent during Thursday afternoon’s Moose Jaw Board of Police Commissioners media scrum if findings released in New York City (that 1/3 of all shoplifting charges were laid against 327 individuals) as well as findings by MJ Independent regarding a small group of people are seemingly responsible for a large number of petty crimes the Chief said a large number of crimes are in fact committed by a small group of people.
“Without overgeneralizing on that that is pretty consistent around the world, and certainly here as well as other places,” Chief Bourassa responded.
Chief Rick Bourassa addresses Council’s Executive Committee- MJ Independent file photo
“Many of these situations, we heard about (in the meeting of the Moose Jaw Board of Police Commissioners’ meeting)…one person is responsible for half our incidents (of assaulting a police officer) that is fairly normalish,” he said.
During the board of police commissioner’s meeting the commissioners were told the three assaults against police officers in April were committed by the same accused during the same incident - being arrested, held in custody and transported to court.
Chief Bourassa said it wasn’t as easy as simply nine individuals responsible for the majority of petty crimes in the community but it was a larger number.
But nevertheless a smaller group of individuals are responsible for a large portion of the crimes committed in Moose Jaw.
MJ Independent’s look at petty crime, was unscientific and centred on nine individuals who were seemingly continually before the courts for what could be seen as a lengthy laundry list of criminal charges.
The majority of the charges the nine individuals faced were petty thefts, breaching release conditions and failure to appear in court.
“MJ Independent focused on nine individuals who seemed to often be in Moose Jaw Provincial Court with a long list of charges for petty crimes.
As best as MJ Independent could assemble the statistics the nine individuals combined faced 433 criminal charges amongst them in a two year period.
It is unknown the exact number of charges, if any, the accused individuals were convicted of.”
“It’s not a lot of people involved in many of the situations. So we see the same people over and over again,” Chief Bourassa said.
“I don’t know if we can track it down to nine people but it wouldn’t be 400 people (for 400 criminal charges) as a rule,” he said, adding “I don’t have the data right in front of me, but anecdotally and from experience yeah, it’s a small number of people who reoffend.”
Crime Is Cyclical - What’s Driving It?
Chief Bourassa said the MJPS tracks crime statistics and often deploys resources to deal with rising crime in a certain type of crime.
“There tends to be cycles where see some incidents beginning to rise, and we focus our resources on those incidents and very often it is a few people who are responsible. Where we intervene and hold those people to account we start to see reductions,” he said.
Chief Bourassa said the MJPS speaks to other police forces across the country and other centers are experiencing similar rises in the types of crime being committed.
The jump in major thefts over $5,000 - and other crimes - he said seems to be driven by the economy, he said.
“It will take some time to understand these rises (in crime) and fully what does driving those,” he said, adding “we do know some of it can be influenced by the economy and people’s resources.”
The COVID - 19 pandemic also had an effect on crime, the Chief said.
“We do know we have come through a couple of challenging years with the pandemic, and we did see some behavioural changes on a larger scale and less civility (and respect in society).”
Drug Trade Fueling Rising Crime
Asked by MJ Independent if illicit drug use is not responsible for the rise in crimes in Moose Jaw, especially petty crimes, Chief Bourassa said that was one of the factors as well.
“Some of it will be yes. But that’s been a standard for years and years and years. A lot of it is connected to addictions and the need for money to service those addictions.”
To help combat the drug trade the MJPS has initiated enforcement project targeting drug suppliers, he said.
“We have increased the resources to that she’ll be seeing more of the projects (aimed at) people who are supplying the drugs and holding them to account…you’re absolutely right a lot of it is tied to the drug trade.”
And Your Stolen Garden Tools
Asked about an example of a person having a garden shovel stolen and it being used to trade or buy drugs is going on he said it may be the case.
SEE RELATED - Stolen Property Being Used As Currency
“Everything has value to somebody I guess,” Chief Bourassa said.