Chief Tells Commissioners Violence On The Rise
By Robert Thomas
Wednesday evening’s violent machete attack may have shocked the community but it may be part of trend for criminals to use weapons in violent assaults.
A trend not just in Moose Jaw but also regionally and across the country.
At Wednesday afternoon’s meeting of the Board of Moose Jaw Police Commissioners the issue of not just violence but violence with weapons was part of the discussion.
Speaking to the Commissioners Chief Rick Bourassa reported that according to the crime statistics violent attacks against people was up.
At the same time violence using a weapon was also up and it was a major concern to the Moose Jaw Police Service, Chief Bourassa said.
Chief Rick Bourassa during the meeting of the Moose Jaw Board of Police Commissioners - MJ Independent photo
“There is an increase in the level of violence and assaults,” Chief Bourassa said, adding “there are more assaults with weapons that are happening.”
According to the most recent statistical extract assault with a weapon sits at 52 incidents at the end of August 2023.
That compares with 37 incidents to the end of August in 2022.
Year over year to August 31st there is a 40.5 percent increase between 2022 and 2023.
It is part of a growth in assaults with weapons over the past three years.
The good news Chief Bourassa gave Commissioners was that those perpetuating violence in Moose Jaw are caught more often than other jurisdictions.
“What we do have is the biggest clearance rates for violent offences in the province.”
“The increase of, I’m going to use the term, lack of civility…where violence is seen as an acceptable means of resolving conflicts …we see that, we see that all over,” Chief Bourassa said in the media scrum.
“We are seeing an increase in the number of weapons used,” he said.
“It is troubling to see the severity of the violence.”
Chief Bourassa said a weapon could be “anything from a stone, to a stick, to a knife to a firearm. But we are seeing increases in that.”
“It is troublesome. It causes harm. We do what we can to prevent however there are many things we cannot prevent”
Chief Bourassa said despite data being limited at the present time “most situations of inter-personal violence are within our social networks. Within people that we know,”
Police Targeted With Violence
He said the police themselves are not spared from assault.
To the end of August there were 15 assaults against police officers in Moose Jaw so far in 2023. This compared to five incidents to the end of August 2022 - a 200 percent increase.
It needs to be noted these are not 15 separate incidents because multiple police officers have been assaulted by a single offender in a specific incident.
Chief Bourassa said there were calls to keep repeat violent offenders behind bars and not released on bail.
“Some folks are prone to use violence to deal with confrontations. We see that more and more,” Chief Bourassa stated adding more police officers are being murdered across Canada.
He said police organizations have called for changes in legislation when it came to granting bail to violent offenders.
“We have been asked the laws be stiffened around bail reform and releases of people who are violent offenders.”
Asked by MJ Independent if it was local people or people from the area committing the violent acts Chief Bourassa said violent offenders come from all over.
“We live in a very mobile society. It can be people who live here, people who have moved here, people who are visiting here,” he said, adding “we live in a society that isn’t a pedestrian society it’s a vehicular society. So people can move around all the time.”
“We live in a world where it’s a very mobile society.”