Saskatoon police chief tempers fears of Fairhaven crime wave

Saskatoon police Chief Troy Cooper confirmed that crime has either gone down or stayed flat in the Fairhaven area, but he says calls for service to the area are going up.

“What we can say right now is that crime in the residential neighbourhood, the Fairhaven neighbourhood, and also in the business area very close by has not increased, in fact it’s gone down in some areas, both short and long term. But calls for service have increased,” Cooper told CTV News.

The police chief's comments come after the Saskatoon Tribal Council publicized police statistics which appeared to show little change in the Fairhaven neighbourhood's calls for service since the organization relocated its emergency wellness shelter to the area. 

Cooper said the calls they’ve been getting haven’t been for criminal matters but for social disturbances, “and that’s what we’re currently building our strategy around as far as resourcing.”

He warned against putting too much weight in the data, since it only accounts for the last two months.

The belief that crime is surging in the area since the opening of the wellness centre in November just isn’t true, he says.

“Crime itself, whether violent crime or property crime, has either gone down — which we would expect in the monthly patterns with the cold weather — or stayed very similar to where they were prior to the shelter opening."

Cooper said the Saskatoon Police Service has increased the number of officers in the area, including the community mobilization unit and its alternative response officers.