The City of North Battleford said it is working with various agencies focused on ensuring residents' safety and well-being. (File photo/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By battlefordsNOW staff

Root causes of crime

City, CMHA respond to Crime Severity Index ranking

Aug 8, 2022 | 2:42 PM

The City of North Battleford expressed its concerns about the 2021 Crime Severity Index (CSI) ranking that shows North Battleford at the top of the list across Canada for communities with a population of 10,000 or more.

As BattlefordsNOW reported, North Battleford’s score of 480.72 is an 11.89 per cent increase from 2020 and the highest in five years for the city.

Looking at the breakdown, the city said in its release it is encouraged to see its efforts and resources into helping reduce violent crimes over the past number of years have made a difference. In 2021, the CSI indicates that violent crimes in the city have went down nearly 7.5 per cent, while increasing provincially.

The city said the reduction in violent crime was achieved from a partnership of city and provincial resources, such as the Community Safety Officers, and the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods (SCAN) Investigation Unit — used for monitoring and reporting suspected drug establishments — and RCMP units such as the Gang Task Force and the Crime Reduction Team.

In Saskatchewan overall in 2021, crime rates increased by 2.9 per cent in overall crime reports, 3.7 per cent in violent crime and 2.5 per cent in non-violent crimes. The city said RCMP mainly attribute increases in property and less-violent crimes in the province to situations where individuals are likely struggling with addictions issues.

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Mayor David Gillan said in the release North Battleford faces similar challenges.

“The escalation in non-violent crimes is concerning and it is something that we’ve heard over the past year at our quarterly reports from local RCMP at council meetings,” he said. “While the city is pleased to see its intentional efforts at reduction of violent crimes is paying off, the increase in crimes of opportunity is troubling.

“As residents, we can all do our part to ensure that the crimes of opportunity are lessened — lock your house doors, do not store items in your vehicles, and remove your keys from your vehicles. It is important to be vigilant as we strive to continue improving the general safety and security of the city.”

The city said it will continue to work with all agencies committed to the well-being and safety of its residents, including with various levels of government on initiatives such as “enhanced supports for those struggling with mental health and/or addictions.”

Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) Battlefords Branch executive director, Jane Zielke de Montbrun, agrees that addictions issues are a challenge for some people in the community.

“Sometimes when people have a mental health problem they try to self-medicate and they kind of go down that path (towards addiction),” she said. “That leads to further problems or it compounds their health issue.”

Zielke de Montbrun added the CMHA is understanding of individuals’ unique situations, supportive of them, and tries to help them seek the right treatment.

“We don’t do clinical support but we do program support. We try really hard to be an open door for people if they are looking for help with their mental health problems, and/or addictions.”

It’s important to start to look at the complexities of the root causes of crime, which can involve a number of issues that can impact a person’s life, she noted.

“We need to as a community to look further than just the face of what’s going on here, and try and figure out together what the problem is,” Zielke de Montbrun said. “Then, [we need to] try and work together to solve that problem for all of us here. I think if we could do that, that would be awesome, and our crime rate would probably go down.”

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW