U of S area suffers from high crime

TANNARA YELLAND
Associate News Editor

Varsity View resident Douglas Tompson has been dealing with property theft and damage on a regular basis, and has raised concerns about the impact of the university’s proximity to the neighbourhood.

On Jan. 30, someone drove into his wife’s car and then fled the scene. Tompson’s video surveillance system captured the incident but the assailant has yet to be identified. He installed the security system after a set of high voltage cables were stolen from his home, costing several thousand dollars. The cables are one of many thefts Thompson says he has dealt with.

Tompson says hit and runs are common in Varsity View, from the damage he can see on fenders around the area.

“I know some people are doing their landscaping design and incorporating driveways onto their front lawns because of all the hit and runs.”

Inspector Rick Penny is the police officer in charge of the east division of the city. It is both the most populous and largest geographical division of the city, comprising everything on the eastern half of the South Saskatchewan River.

However, the area only accounts for only 30 per cent of the city’s crime. Penny says Varsity View is “not unsafe” but that it does have a higher number of property crimes than other east side areas.

Of the 89 neighbourhoods the city is divided into, Varsity View ranked 23rd in terms of the number of reported crimes for 2008. The safest neighbourhood is the Lakewood suburban centre, and the least safe is the central business district downtown.

Lakeridge, one of the safest areas in the city, had 12 crimes against the person — anything not committed against property, including things like theft, assault, etc. — reported in 2008 and 77 property crimes, while Varsity View had 34 personal and 263 property crimes reported. The central business district accounts for 40 per cent of the city’s crime. That area saw a total of 1,364 reported crimes in 2008, 318 of which were against a person.

“As far as property crimes go,” Penny said, “263 is probably one reported every two or three days” in Varsity View.

The average number of property crimes per neighbourhood in 2008 was 174, almost 100 fewer than in Varsity View.

But when a crime is committed and needs to be reported, Tompson says there are some obstacles in the way. He tried to call the hit-and-run hotline listed on the police department’s website and received a message saying the hotline is for outgoing calls only and asking callers not to leave a message.

“I’m sympathetic to them,” Tompson said of the police. “And the thing is, in the whole grand scheme of things, this is not a high priority…. But boy, it is slow going for them to get the file processed. And that just lowers the chance of identification (of the driver).”

Allison Edwards, who is a spokesperson for the Saskatoon police, was surprised to hear there was a hit and run hotline at all.

“I’m not sure what that number represents on (the website),” she said, adding that Thompson “could certainly have just called our 975-8300 number; it’s for all types of non-emergencies.”

But many people are probably unaware that some of the phone numbers listed on the department’s website serve no visible purpose. For those people, when the first number they try is an “outgoing calls only” line instead of a hotline, they may be discouraged from trying another line.
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photo: Flickr / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0