Reported thefts of motor vehicles in Moose Jaw are up 44.4 per cent year-to-date compared to last year, with 26 offences recorded so far this year. 

Deputy Police Chief Rick Johns explained the primary factors at last week’s police board meeting. “We do find the bulk of the vehicle thefts are the result of vehicle keys left in cars, or unlocked cars.” 

Johns spoke about the risk of easily accessible garage door openers. “Having those in the vehicles parked out in front of the house, rather than in the garage, could be a risk to somebody being able to gain entry into a garage, just by breaking into the vehicle and using the garage door opener.” 

He added that overall, vehicles are more difficult to steal now with more complex security systems in newer models.  

Another item of note in May’s statistical extract is failures to comply with court orders seeing a 132.2 per cent increase year-to-date compared to this time last year, with 374 offences recorded in 2024 so far.  

Johns provided an explanation for the increase with respect to failures to show up for fingerprints. “Occasionally, we will process that in lump sums, depending on what we have for resources in our forensic ident unit.” 

“Sometimes, those will pile up, and we will have to get at those in a particular month, and then we’ll process a whole pile of them. That could be a reason where there’s a fluctuation as well,” he added.  

Year-to-date, total crimes against the person are down 14.8 per cent and total crimes against property are down 20.8 per cent compared to this time last year. 

Calls for service are up slightly, seeing a 1.6 per cent increase compared to the number of calls received by the end of May 2023. By the end of May 2024, police saw 8041 calls for service.