At Monday’s city council meeting, Staff Sergeant Gary Hodges was on hand to present the February crime stats for the city.

It was far from a glowing report, with a number of crimes rising considerably from the same time last year.

But on the whole, he spoke of a city that is still safe and comfortable.

Of particular note, There were 181 traffic offenses in February. Those were up dramatically from February of 2019, which saw 26.

Hodges explained that he believed a number of factors led to that rise, with the first being the warmer weather this year leading to a much more conducive environment for that kind of enforcement for long hours.

He said that the second reason is that, unlike last year, his resources are at full strength, with new recruits that are not only eager to get out there, but also less burdened by the workload of the more senior members.

“We were running with two members on the street last year. This year we're running with at least three on a shift, so that's one more out there sharing calls for service load on a rotational basis, and just out there with another set of eyes.”

He said those extra resources are paying dividends in that while it’s not that more residents are breaking traffic laws; only that more of them are getting caught doing so.

Break and Enters and Weapons Offences were both also up a noticeable amount, with a dozen of each in 2020.  Hodges said that he believes the majority of those are the fault of the same six individuals who had been carrying out a string of break and enters on Swift Current sheds and garages in February and have now all been remanded into custody.

The last statistic to see a dramatic rise was in assaults of a non-sexual nature, rising to twenty-nine in February of 2020 from only five the year before.

Again, Hodges stressed the safety of the city, pointing out that these were not cases of strangers being beaten in the streets.

“These aren't incidents of people having fights out in the middle of the street. They're results of domestic violence which, as we all know can come from any number of different factors (such as) social conditions, economics, and home environment. So we work hand in hand with social services to try and alleviate and decrease those kinds of cultures.”

In total there were 394 incidents in the city of Swift Current in February, up from 310 last year, with the bulk of that increase coming from only a handful of categories.