ESTEVAN — The second incoming city council member for the Estevan board of police commissioners was sworn in at a meeting on Dec. 20.
Councillor Anthony Sernick took the oath of office at the start of the meeting. The other incoming member, Councillor Rebecca Foord, was sworn in at the previous meeting in November.
Both councillors will begin serving on the police board in January 2023.
As part of a change for the police board announced last year, the councillor representatives will serve two-year terms. Councillors Shelly Veroba and Lindsay Clark, who joined in January 2021, are wrapping up their terms.
The members at large, Bernadette Wright and Roberta DeRosier, had two-year terms that started on Jan. 1, 2022.
Mayor Roy Ludwig is automatically part of the police board.
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The EPS received 512 calls for service in November, according to numbers released at the meeting, down from the 547 calls that came in during November 2021. In the first 11 months of this year, the EPS has received 6,106 calls for service, a 29.6 per cent decline from the 8,673 calls from Jan. 1-Nov. 30, 2021.
Calls for service this year are also down 18.6 per cent from the five-year average of 7,497.
The total number of Criminal Code charges is at 595 for the year, up 51 from last year. The EPS had 138 crimes against the person in the first 11 months of this year, a 15 per cent increase from the 120 they had for the same period a year ago.
Crimes against property are at 329, up 21 per cent from 272 the previous year. Charges under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act are at 28, down 10 per cent from 31 the previous year. And Criminal Code traffic violations are at 100, down 17 per cent from 121 last year.
Last month, the EPS responded to 12 crimes against the person, with 10 assaults, one assault causing bodily harm and one sexual crime. The number of assaults was down from 14 in November 2021.
In the first 11 months of this year, out of the 138 crimes against the person, there were 107 assaults, 21 sexual crimes, nine assaults causing bodily harm and one robbery.
EPS had a spike in crimes against property in November with 36 occurrences, 23 out of which were thefts under $5,000, followed by eight mischief/willful damage complaints, three residential break and enters, one other break and enter and one theft of a motor vehicle.
"There were three arrests in relation to the thefts. They were all I would say random, nothing specifically related, ranging from recycling thefts, to computers, to keys, to cell phones, you name it, a little bit of everything, nothing specific in nature that we can say you need to watch out for," said Police Chief Richard Lowen.
So far this year, out of the 329 crimes against property, 156 were thefts under $5,000, 116 were mischief or willful damage cases, 28 were residential break and enters, six were business break-ins, four were other break-ins, 15 were thefts of vehicles and four were thefts over $5,000.
There were three charges last month under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, the same as in November 2021. So far this year, there have been 19 trafficking charges and nine for possession.
Nine Criminal Code traffic violations were laid, the same as last year. Eight charges were for impaired/exceed-related offences and one was for dangerous driving and other.
The first 10 months of the year generated 79 charges for impaired/exceed-related offences, 13 for impairment by drug and eight for dangerous driving and other.
The bylaw enforcement officer report for Special Const. Anna Volmer showed that she had 326 occurrences last month, led by 223 unkempt property inspections, 36 snow removal calls, 21 animal calls, 20 other bylaw violations and 11 parking violations.
Lowen noted that Volmer is still new to the service and while she dedicates a lot of time to training, she still does well performing her duties.
So far this year, among the 1,543 calls for bylaw, the bulk of the occurrences have been 801 for unkempt property inspections, 216 for parking violations, 151 for animal calls, 96 for other bylaw, 65 for taxi inspections, 64 for parking complaints and 48 for snow removal notices.
During the meeting, Lowen also noted that as of the end of November, the EPS was under budget, and it looks like they will be coming in under budget for the year.
To wrap up the open portion of the meeting, the board approved the meeting schedule for 2023. There will be 11 meetings, with one each month except for July.
