ESTEVAN - The Estevan Police Service (EPS) saw a decrease in call volumes in 2021.
According to numbers supplied at the Jan. 26 meeting of the Estevan board of police commissioners, the EPS had 8,648 total calls for service last year, which is down 3.5 per cent from the 8,947 they had in 2020, but still above the five-year average of 8,350.8 occurrences.
The total includes Criminal Code violations, traffic infractions and a variety of calls that the EPS receives.
In terms of Criminal Code violations, the EPS responded to 115 crimes against the person, down from 150 the previous year; 273 crimes against property, a decrease from 353; and 123 Criminal Code Traffic violations, up slightly from with 115 in 2020.
Thirty-two charges were under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA), down from 51.
Assaults accounted for the bulk of the crimes against people at 76, followed by 30 sexual crimes and seven assaults causing bodily harm.
Crimes against property included 114 thefts under $5,000, 109 mischief/willful damage complaints, 23 break and enters to a residence and 14 thefts of a motor vehicle. The number os mischief/willful damage incidents plunged from 185 in 2020.
Criminal Code traffic violations included 89 impaired driving/exceeding .08 charges, 26 impaired by drug charges and eight dangerous driving/other charges.
CDSA charges included 19 for possession, 11 for trafficking and two for production.
Police Chief Richard Lowen, who started with the EPS on Sept. 20 of last year, said most of the Criminal Code violations are trending down.
“Our violent crime is coming down and our crimes against property are also coming down,” said Lowen.
It’s a good sign that they were close to the five-year average in overall calls.
“It’s not increasing dramatically. I would expect fluctuations from year to year, but we’re very close to the five-year average, so that’s a very good sign for us,” said Lowen.
One category that did see an increase is impaired driving by drug, with 26, compared to 15 in 2020 and 12 for the five-year average. Lowen attributed it to the equipment accessible for testing and the training of officers.
“When we look back five years, we didn’t have the same awareness or the same level of training for officers for recognizing the signs of impairment,” he said.
Still, he would like to see zero impaired driving charges in the community.
Lowen said he wants to look at how Estevan is categorizing some of its calls, such as scam-related complaints, as the number of calls in the police numbers would be abnormally high.
The biggest thing he has noticed since arriving in Estevan is the number of calls for well-being checks for mental health or concerns about safety, although he doesn’t have numbers. It’s a higher number than he would have expected.
Domestic violence would be the most common call for service in most communities, and wellness checks would be quite high, but it seems to be prevalent when he sees the reports for each day.
“I’m going to be looking at analyzing that a little more over the next few months to see what our numbers actually are, and if they’ve going up in the last little while. Mental health is a big priority for everybody in Canada right now, and that’s a good thing that we’re aware of it, but I have to look at why in a small community, there’s a great number of mental health calls,” said Lowen.
He noted the EPS is addressing it through the police and crisis team (PACT), which was announced in the 2021 provincial budget.
Lowen is pleased the crime severity index has been quite low in Estevan for a number of years. It will likely be higher for 2021 because there was a charge for homicide in the city last June – the first in Estevan in seven years – but he hopes that the figure can return to previous levels, as that was something that attracted him to Estevan.
