John,
I cannot say I completely disagree with your commentary. Although I have some simple, inexpensive solutions to help to begin to solve the crime problem (and the obesity issues) I won't get into that this time. I do have a question for you though. Do you feel safer visiting Toronto/Vancouver/etc because you do not constantly hear all that is bad about those cities? I ask this because growing up, I said I would never move to Regina because it was far more dangerous to live there than Saskatoon, at the time we only received TV stations from Regina. In the past 30 odd years, I have lived in both cities and found them to be similiar with problems, concerns and issues.

"I always get befuddled as people whine, cry and complain when the nationwide crime stats come out and Regina and Saskatoon are inevitably at the top of the list. It seems some think it's part of a great eastern conspiracy to make us look bad out in here in the west. "

I would say that this includes most media outlets, yours included, and our current Mayor and Council with fingers pointing at Fiacco and Murray in particular. Why doesn't your radio station ask them the hard questions?

You would think stat after stat, and article after article in the national press would cause some sort of epiphany.

"The blame for this lies squarely on the shoulders of civic leaders of days gone by who stood by while letting neighbourhoods go to hell in a handbasket instead of doing their jobs to recognize problems and take action. Those politicians being content to gladhand, kiss babies and cut ribbons instead of getting their hands dirty to deal with serious issues have resulted in the problems we face today."

I would not say of days gone by, because Fiacco and cohorts have been less then effective preferring programs that look good but are ineffective. Enough time as been spent my local politicians testing the waters, it's time to jump and get soaked, so we can really deal with the problem(s).

Among the many crappy jobs I've had over the years, one of the less favourite was managing apartment buildings in Saskatoon's "hood". One thing I learned was that change in some things is a grassroots effort. The hooker that always standing at the side door decided to find another roost after I spent a few evenings out there with a camera taking pictures of her "clients" cars. Actually, the only part of that camera that worked was the flash, but that was all I needed :)
Ensuring graffiti was removed within a few hours of it going up gradually slowed its reappearance. When some junior arsonists burned the dumpster, I called 911 for both fire and police, then followed them to their next target and apprehended one of them for the cops. It eventually became known that this area was being watched. Imagine what would have happened had a few more residents in the area joined me. I can think of no area that could benefit more from an organized neighborhood watch.

How about some social programs? Oh wait...because no one in charge believes in that kind of stuff. Seriously though, shouldn't fighting crime be a two-prong approach that borrows from the left and the right? From the right: more police on the job. From the left: some social spending. I can't believe how hard this is for people to fathom. The problem is people are more concerned with their dogmatic approach to politics, rather than using brains and information to figure out what approach (or combination of approaches!) would work best.

I couldn't agree with you more! We live on the "West side" in Mayfair and although we haven't had any serious or particular problems, there are clearly issues in the area, mostly drug houses, EGADZ homes, which consist of outrageous parties', heavy drinking, drugs, and prostitution.

Even though we often call police about things like those homes that are clearly drug houses, by the excess number of traffic that circulates, stopping for about 10 minutes at this particular place, sometimes going in - sometimes having it delivered to the vehicle - or even the fact that well-known slumlords are illegally renting less than "adequate" housing also has drug runs going on, along with groups of teens who are smaashing tv's, dropping off excess garbage (they acquired through theft) in the large dumpsters after they take a bat or something to it - THE POLICE CANNOT BE BOTHERED TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT. YOU CAN GIVE THEM ALL THE SPECIFIC INFORMATION REQUIRED, AND THEIR PATHETIC LACK OF INTEREST AND UNLIKELY ENERGY TO EVEN BOTHER WITH IT IS SO EMMINENT, WHY OH WHY DID THEY GET AN INCREASE IN SALARY? WHY DO THEY NEED A NEW BUILDING - OH YES - BECAUSE THAT'S ALL THEY DO IS HANG OUT THERE INSTEAD OF GETTING OUT ON THE STREET AND DOING WHAT THEY WERE SWORN IN TO DO!

The problem lies with the POLICE most definitely, but also every level of Government - of whom are so wrapped up in River Landing, the can't see the forrest for the trees.

Lighting up the neighborhoods todeal with prostitution or drug houses does nothing, because they know that these many levels of "high profile" people running our cities and those supposed to be cleaning up crime, are some of their very best customers!

Yes, the majority of the problem lies in calling the police - who really have no interest in doing anything about it. They keep asking for people to use "CrimeStoppers" or call in any concerns - but they NEVER, EVER, Follow up! They would rather waste our tax money sitting in their cars, stopping people for going 1 km over the speed limit, than get out of their cars to see what is happening in our communities - just sitting in their "cruisers" (called that for a reason) drinking coffee and eating donuts and watching the radar - soft life for the oath they took - don't you think?

Yes we have 2 major "Hoods" one in Regina and one in Saskatoon. I have lived in both city and where I have lived I feel safe. But I don't in our so called hoods. When I lived in Regina I didn't even want to go to a Rider Game as I didn't want to walk or even leave my car in that neibourhood. Now to my point.....Yes they are hoods and no one feels safe in those neibourhoods so what are we going to do. I am sorry but it comes down to the people living in that neibourhoods. We as a society cannot force anyone to be proud of themselves and to have respect for themselves. You have to want to be proud of yourselves and to improve life. There are too many "social programs" and we need to cut them because no one is using them except to maybe abuse them. We need to get tougher in our jails and make it a place you don't want to go. Make laws and law breakers sorry for their crimes then our "hoods" would be better because if you get caught doing a crime you do the time. It is time to make crime breakers do the time.