REGINA, Sask. — Public safety pressures took centre stage Tuesday at the Regina Board of Police Commissioners meeting, where Police Chief Lorilee Davies reported a 2.7 per cent increase in overall crime from January through September compared with the same period last year.
Property crime climbed 3.6 per cent, while crimes against people remained unchanged. The meeting also marked the first annual review of Saskatchewan’s Street Weapons Act in Regina, with police reporting 20 charges and 23 items seized under the legislation.
Mayor Chad Bachynski said the year-end numbers will help guide decisions about police staffing and resources.
“The real test is going to be where we land at the end of the year,” Bachynski said after the meeting. “That’ll probably give us a better picture.”
20 charges, 23 items seized under weapons law
Regina opted into Saskatchewan’s Safe Public Spaces (Street Weapons) Act in October 2025. The legislation allows officers to seize specified weapons in public spaces without necessarily pursuing criminal charges.
Between the city’s adoption of the legislation and Oct. 5, 2026, Regina police laid 20 charges under the act and seized 23 items.
Eighteen charges involved possession of a street weapon in a public urban space. Two involved bear spray that had been defaced or altered, such as by removing its label.
Bear spray accounted for most of the seizures, followed by machetes and knives. Police also seized two quantities of pills believed to contain fentanyl under the legislation rather than proceeding through criminal charges.
Three of the seized knives had blades longer than 30 centimetres.
Davies said the law gives officers another option when they encounter someone carrying a potentially dangerous item but not actively threatening anyone.
“For us to be able to take them out of the community is certainly a good thing in terms of potential victimization down the road,” she told commissioners.
She cited an incident involving a man riding a bicycle with a machete and another involving a man whose CO2 pistol was detected by a scanner at a hospital. Police seized the items and issued tickets rather than pursuing criminal charges.
Before the legislation, those incidents could have resulted in criminal charges, arrest and court proceedings.
“I think that this is reducing criminalization, but we’re still having an impact on safety in the community,” Davies said.
Fifteen of the 20 charges came from the central district, four from the north and one from the south. Alternative response officers were responsible for 11 charges, while sworn officers laid nine.
Davies said the results were consistent with what police expected when the city adopted the legislation. The law is intended to remove weapons before they are used to threaten or harm someone, rather than replace criminal charges when an offence is actively being committed.
Could Regina tighten bear spray rules?
The number of bear spray seizures prompted questions from commissioners about whether more oversight is needed for the product’s sale.
Davies said Regina has not experienced the same level of bear spray incidents reported in Saskatoon, but the issue remains on police radar.
She said the service has previously advocated for requirements such as identification checks, serial-number records and information about buyers.
Those measures have not been implemented.
Under the Street Weapons Act, the maximum fine is $5,000. Davies said police do not yet have a clear picture of the penalties that will ultimately be imposed in Regina’s cases.
Bachynski said the board could consider more frequent reporting if the number of cases increases.
“I think the aggregation is of a scale that an annual report seems like probably appropriate to continue with,” he said.
However, he said the meeting identified possible areas for further discussion, including legislative changes that could make bear spray purchases more difficult or require retailers to collect more information.
“If we see an increase or you see more pressure within that area, it might elevate that discussion,” Bachynski said.
258 admissions in one month at 15-bed facility
Another significant pressure point is Regina’s complex needs facility, which recorded 258 admissions and transports in September. That was its second-highest monthly total since opening in July 2024.
The facility has 15 beds and provides temporary care for people arrested for being intoxicated in a public place and considered a danger to themselves or others.
Instead of being taken to police detention cells or an emergency department, eligible people can receive food, a safe place to stay, mental health support and help connecting with housing and other services.
Davies said demand can be high enough to fill the facility early in the day.
“Our downtown safety team said that by 11 o’clock every morning they could fill up all the beds if they were intentional in doing that,” she told commissioners.
She said police generally find space for people, but acknowledged the facility reaches capacity on some days.
People can stay for up to 24 hours, depending on their circumstances. Davies said the service has seen individuals accept support after multiple visits, including one person who reconnected with family and returned to their home community.
The facility is designed to offer more than temporary shelter, Davies said.
“It’s a safe place for someone to go where there are the supports needed to try and interrupt that cycle.”
Bachynski said the board would be open to discussing additional capacity if police could identify how much space would be needed to manage peak demand.
Overdoses, fires and collisions add to police workload
Police responded to 38 overdose incidents in September, including two fatalities. Officers administered naloxone, commonly known as Narcan, 10 times.
The monthly crime overview also showed a 19 per cent decrease in arsons, a 6.7 per cent increase in bin fires, with 27 reported in September, and a 6.2 per cent increase in impaired-driving offences. Davies noted that impaired-driving statistics are influenced by proactive police enforcement.
She also renewed calls for road users to pay attention following a series of collisions involving pedestrians, cyclists, vehicles and e-bike riders in the second half of September. The incidents resulted in injuries and one death.
Davies said police have not identified a single common cause.
“We can’t say it’s impaired driving or distracted driving or failing to stop for a red light,” she said. “It’s really been a multitude of different things that have contributed to each incident.”
She urged pedestrians, cyclists, motorists and e-bike and e-scooter users to follow the rules of the road and remain alert.
Communications centre faces staffing pressure
The meeting also highlighted staffing challenges inside the police communications centre, where employees handle emergency calls and dispatch services for police, fire and ambulance.
Commissioners who visited the centre praised staff for their professionalism while raising concerns about the psychological and emotional toll of handling traumatic calls.
One commissioner urged the service to give communications centre recruitment the same attention as efforts to hire more police officers.
“We need to also champion more people in the comm centre,” the commissioner said. “If they are understaffed, we need to sell those jobs to the people that are willing to help and that want to help.”
Davies acknowledged that staffing remains a pressure point and said the service is working to recruit employees while finding ways to give existing staff time off and opportunities to recover from demanding shifts.
“Working really hard to get us even overstaffed would be nice,” she said.
Police chief to raise theft threshold with counterparts
Commissioners also questioned whether the Criminal Code’s $5,000 threshold separating theft under and theft over should be updated to reflect the current cost of goods.
Davies said the distinction falls under federal jurisdiction, and she was not aware of any existing lobbying effort to change it. She plans to discuss the issue with police chiefs from across Canada at an upcoming Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police meeting.
“The theft overcharge does come with a more significant penalty as it moves through the courts,” Davies said.
She acknowledged that the threshold may no longer reflect the value of goods as it did when it was established.
“One item now can be over $5,000,” she said.
The board received and filed both the Street Weapons Act report and the September crime overview before moving into a private session.
