ESTEVAN — Estevan police have seen a further decline in volumes of calls for service and infractions this year.
According to September's crime statistics released at the Oct. 19 meeting of the Estevan board of police commissioners, EPS members had 549 calls for service in September, bringing the total for the year to 4,984 calls.
In September 2021, they had 666 calls, and a total of 7,503 calls for the first nine months of the year.
The decrease for the year is 2,519 calls or 33.6 per cent.
The five-year average year-to-date for calls for service is at 6,228, which means that so far this year, the EPS had 20 per cent fewer calls and infractions.
One category saw an increase on a monthly base in September. Crimes against property increased from 35 to 48 in September in comparison with the same month a year earlier, and have jumped from 221 to 266 on a year-to-date basis.
Last month there were 25 thefts under $5,000, 17 cases of mischief/willful damage, two residential and two other break and enters, one theft of motor vehicle and one theft over $5,000.
Police Chief Rich Lowen said that there was nothing specific contributing to a spike in thefts under $5,000, however, the EPS keeps reminding the public to exercise caution, lock their vehicles and houses, and secure their belongings.
"We had a small rash in relation to thefts of things like copper wire that we reported through media. Other than awareness for the public, it's really nothing that we look for. We did address some of the thefts that occurred and investigated as they happen and made some arrests," Lowen said.
Crimes against the person went slightly down in comparison to September 2021, from 15 to 13, but were up on a year-to-date basis with 114 such crimes in 2022 as opposed to 103 in the first nine months of 2021 – an 11 per cent increase. This September all 13 cases were assaults.
Criminal Code traffic violations have slightly decreased on monthly and year-to-date basis as well, from eight in September last year to seven in September of this year, and from 97 in the first nine months of last year to 76 so far this year – a 22 per cent decrease.
Four cases last month were impaired/exceed related offences, two were cases of drug impairment and one was listed as dangerous driving and other.
There were no violations of the Controlled Drug and Substances Act in September 2022 or September 2021. There have been 25 so far this year, compared to 27 in the first nine months of 2021 – a seven per cent decline on a year-to-date basis.
Five-year averages for each category are 97.4 for crimes against the person, 247.6 for crimes against property, 91.6 for Criminal Code traffic violations and 34.8 for Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
Special Const. Anna Volmer, who is the city's new bylaw enforcement officer, submitted the last report for former bylaw officer Morgan Prentice. The bylaw officer handled 66 occurrences last month, including 27 unkempt property inspections, 12 animal calls, 13 other bylaw concerns, 10 parking violations, two animal violations, one call about a neglected animal and one cat trap call.
So far this year, there were 1,035 calls and violations. Unkempt property inspections have accounted for the largest share of activity with 513 infractions, followed by parking violations at 189 and animal calls at 98.
