The Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics released their findings for police reported crimes in 2017 last week. Weyburn's crime severity index went up 20 percent last year over the previous year.

Deputy Chief Rod Stafford explained the crime severity index is derived from sentencing data from the courts, with certain offenses garnering a higher number than others. The volume of crimes is also taken into account. 

The increase for Weyburn is in non-violent offenses, which went up 27.8 percent. The amount of violent offenses slightly decreased, which are down 2.5 percent.

"While it doesn't have anything to do with the number of files we investigated or necessarily even the number of charges we laid, by the time that volume of work goes through court and they deal with sentencing data, that's what generates that almost 28 percent increase in non-violent crime, and we're attributing that almost exclusively to the increase in break-and-enter property crimes in 2017," shared Stafford.

The crime severity index for Weyburn in 2017 is 94.77, as compared to 74.16 in 2016. Regina has the third highest crime severity index number in the country with 111.89. Saskatoon has the highest number in the country at 114.98. The crime severity index for the country overall is 72.87. 

Saskatchewan's rural crime rate was 36 percent higher than the urban crime rate in 2017.