Police add patrols to counter Pleasant Hill crime

The Saskatoon police are increasing patrols in the Pleasant Hill neighbourhood.

In the last three weeks, the area has seen three murders, a stabbing, a standoff, and a home invasion.

Chief Troy Cooper told Gormley on Monday that there are multiple reasons for this.

“There’s a lot of rental properties, a lot of low-priced housing, there’s a lot of density in the neighbourhood, there’s a lot of young people (and) there’s a lot of pockets of poverty,” he said.

“A lot of the things that contribute to the environment of offending are present in some of those areas. So, that’s not something you can fix overnight.”

Cooper said police are making an effort to step up their presence. They have between 20 and 30 patrol officers and between 15 and 20 detectives in the area after the recent murders.

“We also have an operational plan down there, where we have started to have more police presence fenced in so that people, at least when they’re out and about, see the police (and) feel some safety,” he told Gormley.

Cooper said the murders alone were enough to warrant police attention.

“Just that in itself was going to receive a lot of resources,” he said.

Pleasant Hill is the area stretching from Avenue H to Avenue V along 21st Street West. It has a diagonal border extending south to 17th Street West.