The Moose Jaw Police Service is continuing to receive calls on residents not complying with the public health orders. 

During the Moose Jaw Board of Police Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, a statistical extract for March was presented. 

The extract showed that the police service responded to 38 calls from January to March of this year. 

“Those things range from excessive gatherings as the numbers change and as we worked our way through the pandemic,” said Supt. Devon Oleniuk.  

“The rallies which were quite significant early in the pandemic, usually for non-mask wearing people. We would get a fair amount of those calls.” 

There were 13 pandemic responses for the month of March, down slightly from 18 in March of last year. Police have also received 137 non-compliance complaints since the beginning of the pandemic. 

While there have only been a couple of major freedom rallies in the city, Chief Rick Bourassa said it hasn’t been an issue as of late. 

“We simply haven't had the same rallies that were happening earlier. They just haven't happened,” Bourassa said.  

“We don't know, as the weather improves if we will see more of that. We do watch that we do monitor that and we do track the trends that are happening in other places.” 

Commissioner Doug Blanc asked why summary offence tickets have jumped in March from 88 last year to 162 this March.  

Bourassa also chalked those numbers up to the pandemic. 

“Last year at this time, if you remember nothing was moving. There was the initial lockdown and there were no cars, there was nothing moving, so what we're seeing is just in terms of normal traffic,” he said. 

Crimes Against the Person on the Decline 

Meanwhile, the statistic extract showed that crimes against the person have declined by about 25 per cent compared to last year. 

There were 109 offences from January to March of this year, down from 146 during that same time period last year. 

The statistics showed a 49 per cent drop in common assaults year-to-date, a 36 per cent drop in assaults with a weapon and assaults causing bodily harm and a 57 per cent drop in threats. 

However, there was a 32 per cent increase in domestic disputes which the police believe is caused due to the stressors of the pandemic.