Saskatoon improves ranking on crime severity index but still sits in top 10

Saskatoon Police Service Chief Cameron McBride says the latest Statistics Canada crime severity index (CSI) rankings confirm what officers are seeing on the job.

The CSI measures the volume and types of crimes reported by police across Canada. Saskatoon ranked eighth out of the 41 cities on the 2023 index, meaning it has one of the highest crime severity rates in the country. The Regina CMA landed at ninth on the list.

While that represents an improvement from the city's sixth spot on 2022's index, Saskatoon police aren't celebrating, McBride told reporters Friday afternoon.

"Any rise in the number of violent crimes is of concern to me, and the reporting that I'm receiving from our members, our front-line staff on the street, is that there seems to be a higher propensity to use violence on the streets, and certainly with regard to the use of weapons, we're seeing that," McBride said.

Last year, the Saskatoon Census Metropolitan Area — which includes communities such as Dundurn, Martensville and Warman — reported 8,730 crimes per 100,000 people, according to StatsCan. 

That works out to a crime rate increase of five per cent, down from the eight per cent jump seen in 2022, but still twice the increase recorded in 2021.

Saskatoon has consistently ranked high on the index. But this year's result isn't entirely a negative number, McBride said.

"Our ranking in terms of our comparison to Canada has been improving year-over-year. And that in itself is encouraging," McBride said.

In 2019, Saskatoon ranked fifth among Canadian cities on the index.

The crime severity index is measured differently from the overall crime rate. Statistics Canada says the index is measured by assigning weight based on the crimes' seriousness. For instance, the agency says, one murder has about 280 times the impact of one property theft.

Among provinces, Saskatchewan again led the country and has ranked the worst since the federal agency first started reporting the crime severity index.

Saskatoon recorded 12 homicides in 2023, but is already on pace to surpass that in 2024 with 11 homicides to date.

Police in the Saskatoon CMA reported 17,515 property crimes last year, a 2.2 per cent increase from the year prior.

Police reports of break and enters dropped 10.2 per cent year-over-year, and motor vehicle thefts were down 6.25 per cent, to 1,229 from 1,253 last year. But shoplifting jumped 69 per cent to 1,970 reports this year compared to 1,110 last year.

Nationally, contributors to an uptick in violent crime included a 35 per cent increase in reports of extortion, a seven per cent rise in assault with a weapon or assault causing bodily harm, and a four per cent spike in robbery, the report said.

Non-violent offences, on the other hand, increased nationally due to a 52 per cent increase in child pornography reports, an 18 per cent hike in shoplifting reports and a 12 per cent rise in fraud reports.

Across the country, the number of police-reported hate crimes was up 32 per cent last year, with those targeting race accounting for a little less than half of that.