6 people died from overdose in Regina in June, police data shows

Fewer people in Regina died from overdoses in June than any other month so far this year, police data shows, but the city is still on pace for the deadliest year on record.

Six people died from overdoses last month, according to monthly overdose numbers issued by the Regina Police Service.

A total of 72 people have died from overdoses in Regina as of June 30 — the most reported by police through the first half of a year since at least 2018, data shows.

"It's a tragedy," acting police chief Lorilee Davies told reporters, during a break in Tuesday's meeting of police commissioners.

"Anytime anyone loses their life in the community, it's a huge loss for our city."

Two in three of the people who have died this year are men, which is on par with past years, data shows.

Police-reported overdoses hovered around the same level from January through April, but climbed significantly in May and increased again in June, data shows.

In June, police reported about 330 overdoses, data shows. Officers only attended 24 of those incidents, the fewest so far this year.

Regina needs more services to help with addictions, Davies said, and the onus to access those services has to shift from the individual to the providers.

"We have to take the services to people in the community. We can't expect the community just to walk into a hospital and say, 'I'm here. Help me get sober,'" Davies said.

"We really have to reimagine how we map out those services in the community."

Robberies, assaults are up: data

More people are being robbed and assaulted compared to last year, data shows.

Police reported nearly 160 robberies through June — almost a third of which were reported last month, data shows.

Regina police reported 118 robberies through the first half of 2022.

Davies told reporters that the rise in robberies reflects the dysfunction in the city that may stem from larger social issues going unaddressed, such as homelessness and addiction.

"There is no tie that I could make [that] homelessness or addictions leads to robberies, but it is a statistic in our community," she said.

During Tuesday's board meeting, Davies told members that about 30 per cent of robberies reported last year involved the use of a weapon, whereas there have been none so far this year.

Data shows almost half of this year's robberies happened on the street. Davies said during the meeting that the robberies have often occurred at night and the assailant used physical force.

The number of assaults has risen significantly as well.

Police have reported nearly 1,200 assaults in the first half of the year, up from 915 total assaults at the same point last year.

More than two in five assaults reported this year were deemed Level 2 assaults, defined by police as assaults with a weapon or those that cause bodily harm.

Police reported nearly 500 Level 2 assaults so far this year, about a quarter of which were reported last month, data shows.

Davies believes domestic violence may play a role in the increase, she said.

Saskatchewan has had the highest rate of police-reported intimate partner violence of any province for years, Statistics Canada data shows.

The Regina Police Service received roughly 3,300 calls about domestic conflict — which include violent and non-violent calls — through the first half of the year, including 579 calls in June, data shows.

The federal government announced Tuesday that Saskatchewan will get more than $20 million over four years to address gender-based violence through a national action plan.