Why key crime statistics are up this year in Saskatoon

Over the past decade, Cliff Dumont has been high, drunk, shot, stabbed and had his jaw broken. He was in a gang.

Now, after doing 16 months in a correctional centre for carrying a loaded handgun into a North Battleford hotel, he decided to get straight.

On a morning in November, the 29-year-old agreed to talk about crystal meth and the violent turn of events in Saskatoon this year.

While the drug is not the source of all violence in the city, the powerful, addictive and relatively inexpensive stimulant is profoundly affecting crime patterns.

There's just violent people everywhere. You can get killed on the east side just as quick; it doesn't matter where you are.- Cliff Dumont

"When people are on the drug, they're awake for days and days so their mind gets more and more crazy. They kind of lose track of who they are and what they'll do to get that next high. So they're carrying around drugs, guns, selling it everywhere," Dumont said.

"There's just violent people everywhere. You can get killed on the east side just as quick; it doesn't matter where you are."

Dumont still has family involved in street life. Speaking about that world can carry a price tag paid in blood. That's why CBC agreed to protect his real identity with a pseudonym and why we won't reveal the name of the gang he was affiliated with.

Crime and violence

A look at police statistics for the first three quarters of 2016 paints an unsettling picture when compared to last year:

• Homicides are up 50 per cent.
• Attempted murders are up 66 per cent.
• Possession of stolen property charges are up 42 per cent.
• Drug busts are up 24 per cent.
• Weapons possession are up 25 per cent.

Just last month, police were called to 11 stabbings effectively one every three days.

Alarming, yes, but also deceptive.

Homicides are up 50 per cent, which is an increase to nine murders from six. The 66-per-cent increase in attempted murders is to five from three.

Understanding the raw numbers as opposed to the percentage increase is important to Darcy Shukin,the staff sergeant in charge of the Saskatoon Police Service's targeted enforcement section. It handles serious assaults, vice and missing persons.

I don't see anything as overly alarming at this stage.- Staff Sgt.DarcyShukin

Shukin says that, despite the unsettling stats from his own force, it's largely business as usual.

"I would say we're pretty much in the ballpark where we traditionally are for the different types of persons offences," he said.

"I don't see anything as overly alarming at this stage.We seem to be pretty much on par with what usually happens in our city."

The October stab wave

Shukin does not dispute that October was a rough month. Eleven stabbings is abnormal in a 31-day span.

And yet, when examined individually, he said the cases don't stand out.

"An anomaly. I really don't have an explanation beyond that," said Shukin."These type of cases come in waves, in spurts."

He said there's nothing to tie the cases together, although alcohol was a factor in the majority of them. Most of them involved people familiar with one another.

Dumont has his own take on the October stabbings.

When he reads the police news releases, he too doesn't see any larger significance beyond a cluster of ill-timed encounters.

"It could be a drug debt, it could be an old beef, one guy could have just slept with that guy's girlfriend.Who knows what it could have been?It could be anything," Dumont said.

The role of crystal meth

''There are days in that court where you'll see half or two-thirds in custody that are somehow related tomethamphetamine.'- Frank Impey, Crown prosecutor

Shukin said he doesn't see crystal meth as a driving force behind violent crime. It's sometimes a factor, he said, but alcohol remains the prevalent substance that leads to bad judgment and violent assaults.

The area where the drug has had its greatest impact is in property thefts. Possession of stolen property charges increased to 513 cases this year from 361 in 2015.

Saskatoon Police Service's crime mapping application provides approximate locations of reported crimes within the city. Click here to use the map.

The view from the courthouseis different.

• Bar bust nets cops meth, handgun, body armour, cash
• Police arrest man with meth and samurai sword
• Police seize handgun, cash, meth in bust

"There are days in that court where you'll see half or two-thirds in custody that are somehow related to methamphetamine," said Frank Impey, a veteran prosecutor works at provincial court and handles new arrests.

"You will see strain on the courts; you will see strain on the remand system. As far as the custody docket system goes, people who are addicted are not good candidates for release."

Gangs with a gang problem

More than overwhelming the court system, Dumont said crystal meth is blowing up traditional gang structures in the city, and this is contributing to violence on the street.

Dumont said when he was in a gang in the 1990s and 2000s, it was not uncommon to find different gangs reaching a dtente. Basically, you stay out of our way and we'll stay out of yours.

They called it "tying rags," a symbolic union of different gang colours that signified a truce.

But this has all changed.

"When you see a rival, it's war, right? It's got to be war," Dumont said.

This dysfunction filters down to the individual members, he added. It's more and more difficult tokeep discipline over agroup of disadvantaged young men who are not, at best, thinking clearly.

"At any moment a bad situation could happen in that scene, right? You're carrying a gun or a knife, something bad is going to happen," he said.

4 corners, one problem

Police, prosecutors and Dumont agree on another point: Meth is not a problem restricted to one part of the city.

As Shukin noted, the area where police see the greatest impact is in break-and-enters and stolen property.

Looking at the police crime map shows that break-and-enters are a city-wide problem. Crime is not just a core neighbourhood or west side problem.

Imagine someone high on meth breaking into a house in Stonebridge looking for electronics to sell to buy more drugs. Then the homeowner wakes up and confronts the intruder.

Dumont fills in the blanks.

"When you're high on crystal meth and awake for a week, for 10 days, what's going on?You don't really know what's going on in your head, right?" he said.

"You could run into a dope-sick guy that needs drugs and is looking for someone to rob and you just end up in that wrong place at the wrong time."