The severity of crimes in Swift Current appears to be on the rise according to a report Statistics Canada released earlier this week.

Swift Current's crime severity index jumped by just over eight per cent from 2016 to 2017 and now sits at 106.

Gary Hodges, the staff sergeant with the Swift Current City RCMP, said he believes the drug culture in the city is behind the increase.

"People who are addicted to drugs, that's all they focus on, is getting that next hit or fix," he said. "They don't care where it comes from, they don't care how they get the money for it. So there is where we see an increase in the crime severity index in some instances because people are desperate, they'll do whatever it takes."

By whatever it takes to get the next fix, Hodges means people will commit crimes such as thefts, break-and-enters, assaults with and without weapons, and possibly working in the sex trade industry.

Another reason the crime severity index rose last year is because the City RCMP dealt with 12 firearms related incidents, up ten from 2016.

"We're seeing a transition from baseball bats and knives to guns, which results in a high crime severity index number," he said.

One number that fell in 2017 when compared to the previous year was the amount of theft over $5,000, the City detachment handled 30 of those cases and in 2016 they dealt with 53 cases.

While the province's total number of crimes fell by around three per cent, the City detachment didn't experience that, due to Swift Current's growth Hodges believes.

"Our crime rate when up," he said. "With that automatically your crime goes up. It's proportionate to the growth of the community."