The Weyburn Police Service is requesting the help of the public in dealing with a high incidence of seemingly random and violent crimes in the community.

The numbers of mischiefs, where property or vehicles have been damaged, along with violent incidents, are "at a higher rate than we would like to see," said Inspector Russ Chartrand, and city and area residents can help the police to curb some of these offences.

In the last month alone, there have been 31 mischief complaints; in many cases, these involve random, walk-by damages, such as where a vehicle's window is smashed, tires slashed or a lawn ornament gets broken, and are not related to other incidents or crimes.

There have also been 42 noise-related complaints, such as noisy parties, loud stereos in cars, and so on, where the police were called to deal with the level of noise late at night.

In the past month, there have also been 23 thefts and break-ins, such as items stolen from vehicles, break-ins to garages and so on, and 42 complaints have involved violence of some kind.

"This involves everything from stabbing to domestic violence to assaults," said Insp. Chartrand, noting all of these have kept the police extremely busy.

He said he doesn't want to press the panic button, as he considers Weyburn is still a safe community to live in, but notes residents should be aware these incidents are occurring and they can help by being alert to what's happening in their area, and calling immediately if they see something or someone suspicious.

"A lot of these mischiefs are walk-by incidents, and usually increase to an extent in the summer. We're encouraging people to pick up the phone and let us know if they see something out of place, and phone immediately rather than waiting until they hear about it later," said Insp. Chartrand, adding it is helpful if people can get a licence plate number, vehicle description or description of the culprit or culprits when it's possible to do so, to enable the police to come and check it out while it is still timely.

"It makes for a better community if the community works together. How does a community attack some of these issues? By making them aware that crime is present. The public's goodwill is needed to let us know what's going on," said the inspector.