ESTEVAN — The Estevan Police Service continued to see an increase in the number of crimes against property this year.
Numbers released at the April 23 meeting of the Estevan board of police commissioners showed that the EPS dealt with 42 such crimes in March and a total of 105 such occurrences in the first three months of the year. In January, February and March of 2023, the EPS responded to a total of 59 such occurrences, so this year has seen a 78 per cent increase.
Out of the 42 crimes against property in March, 27 were thefts under $5,000, eight were mischief-willful damage complaints, three were thefts of motor vehicles, two were residential and one was a business break and enter, and one was a theft over $5,000.
On a year-to-date basis, the EPS responded to 51 thefts under $5,000 (an 89 per cent increase from 27 in the first three months of 2023), 31 mischief/wilful damage complaints (29 per cent increase from 24), 12 vehicle thefts (a 1,110 per cent increase from one), 10 break and enters (43 per cent increase from seven), and one theft over $5,000 (there were no such crimes in the first three months of 2023).
The EPS dealt with 10 crimes against the person, with seven assaults, two sexual crimes and one robbery. They responded to 14 such crimes in March of 2023. In the first three months of this year, police dealt with 37 crimes against person, with 29 assaults, six sexual crimes and two robberies. The number of these kinds of crimes declined by 16 per cent from 44 such charges laid over the same period of time a year earlier.
The EPS had eight Controlled Drugs and Substances Act charges in March, with four charges for trafficking and four for possession. They had six CDSA charges in March 2023. In the first three months of the year, they laid 13 charges, including eight for trafficking and five for possession, as opposed to 20 a year earlier, which is a 35 per cent decline.
The Criminal Code traffic violations have seen a slight decrease as well. Thirty-two charges were laid so far this year, including 21 for impaired/exceed-related offences, seven for impairment by drug, and four cases of dangerous driving and other, which is a 20 per cent decline from 40 charges they laid in January-March a year earlier.
The EPS dealt with eight Criminal Code traffic violations in March, including five charges for drug impairment and three for impaired/exceed-related offences. Twelve violations were detected in March 2023.
Total calls for service for the year are down. There were 510 occurrences in March of this year versus 686 calls in March 2023. The year-to-date number of calls is at 1,624, down 10 per cent from 1,803 over the first three months of last year.
As for the five-year averages, the EPS averaged 1,818 calls in the first three months, with 34 crimes against the person, 78.8 crimes against property, 28 Criminal Code traffic violations and 14.8 CDSA charges.
