Incidents of arson and domestic violence linked to pandemic, says Saskatoon police chief

Violent crimes — like aggravated assaults — have significantly increased in Saskatoon this year.

Those also include domestic violence and criminal harassment cases which, according to Saskatoon Police Service Chief Troy Cooper, are up 16 per cent.

Anecdotally, he says people living so close together for many months may have something to do with that.

He says during the first five or six weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic in March and April, domestic violence calls had not increased. That changed as time went on.

“The longer people were restricted in their movement, the more we saw the increase in domestic violence,” Cooper said. “That occurred right through the summer.”

Cooper says the calls started to stabilize somewhat, as people started getting out a bit more and more community services were available.

“Certainly we’re concerned about family supports, concerned about making sure that the police are doing their role when it comes to safety in the homes,” he added.

Arsons have also nearly doubled so far this year, from 65 cases at this time last year to 125 this year.

Again, Cooper believes pandemic-related issues may have some connection, because the trend was so unusual.

The department looked for causes or any connections with previous years. The only thing that changed was the pandemic.

“In summer months, arsons tend to spike; not a big surprise there,” he said. “Arsons are often a crime of opportunity where there’s people out and about during the summer … although it started earlier, and I think that might reflect some of the reduced structure that we would normally have in our community around crimes of opportunity.”

However, property crimes are so far down 17 per cent. That includes break-and-enters, theft and robberies.

And the number of homicides so far is fewer than 2019, with 12 so far recorded this year as compared with 16 last year.

Cooper says three-quarters of those cases are linked to gangs in some way. Charges have been laid in nine cases so far. Half of the time, firearms were also involved.

COVID-19

So far this year, police have responded to more than 1,200 calls for potential COVID-related public health order offences, or to carry out federal government orders to check on travellers who are required to quarantine.

But there have only been three fines handed out so far, although Cooper says they are still investigating several cases.

He says officers have been working closely with public health officers and corrections officials and have had to get used to new responsibilities.

Cooper maintains that most people in Saskatoon are following public health orders, but he says there is a small group of people who still refuse to do so. He echoes the sentiment of the province’s chief medical health officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab, that “the time for education has passed.”

“They get a lot of attention, but there’s certainly not a lot of them. And those folks, those organizations will be held accountable,” Cooper said.

He adds that for the most part, there are few occasions when people are blatantly defying public health orders.

Within the department, there have been nine staff members who have so far tested positive for the virus. At one point earlier this year there were 70 department members in self-isolation.

There are now about 30 out of close to 700 staff in self-isolation.