Police Chief Troy Cooper says the Saskatoon Police Service are closely monitoring an increase in domestic violence calls.

In a press briefing on Wednesday, Cooper told reporters domestic violence calls are up by about 10 per cent since the COVID-19 health orders were announced.

"They're together under a great deal of strain and pressure, with job loss and economic downturn and that sort of thing." said Cooper.

The chief said there had been an increase of roughly 125 domestic violence calls over the past 10 weeks, compared to average.

He hoped that as restrictions begin to be lifted the number of calls begin to decline.

"We know that some of those causes will hopefully be temporary and we'll hopefully be able to see things move back to normal," he said.

Meanwhile, he said the number of calls to investigate sexual violence cases are down considerably.

However, Cooper stressed that they are tracking those cases very closely.

The closure of the police station to the public, as well as schools and hospitals has meant it's harder for victims to come forward.

"We know that that all of those things could potentially be barriers," he said.

"That's certainly something that we're concerned about."

Last week, CBC reported the story of an alleged sexual assault victim who tried to file a complaint at the Saskatoon police station, and was told she had to go through different channels to do so.

As of Tuesday, the Saskatoon Police Service had opened its doors to the public to take complaints.

However, Cooper said the number of reported vehicle thefts has remained constant, which is a big worry to Saskatoon police.

"That's disappointing and it's something that we're concerned about," he said.

"We know that more than 60 percent of the evade police incidents that we've become involved in are a stolen vehicle that we're pursuing. We know evades can be dangerous to the public and dangerous to our officers and dangerous to the people involved."