Crime statistics in the Energy City are up in almost every category, according to information released by the Estevan Police Service.
That situation does not surprise Estevan police Chief Del Block at all. In fact the numbers have come in pretty well where he thought they would going into 2011 and now the statistical year-end review bears it out.
"The total number of calls we handled are up 19.3 per cent to 7,370 in 2011 compared with 6,174 in 2010," Block said during an interview in his office at the Estevan Police Service (EPS) facility in downtown Estevan.
The good news is that the EPS members were able to handle the increases within their operating budget and Block said that since the current contract with the rank and file members doesn't expire until the end of 2012, the salary increase of 4.5 per cent, contained in the last contract, will be implemented and included in this year's budget. Since wage payments to personnel are the biggest chunk of the budget, Block said the budget exercise in 2012 should be relatively straight forward too.
"We're getting a new police cruiser within the next week or two, but that's part of the 2011 budget," Block said.
There was also a second vehicle included in the past budget, for the plain clothes officers to use. It doesn't require a full police package of additional equipment. The 2012 budget includes funds for replacement of two patrol cruisers.
As for personnel, Block said the EPS is "pretty well up to full strength now. We have one recruit in training right now and two more promised for August 2012 that have been approved by the board of police commissioners."
He said those additional positions were essential due to the increasing workload and growing population plus the expectations of between four and five retirements within the next two to three years.
"We have three policing positions paid for by the provincial government, that's $300,000 from them, which helps the budget situation."
Block said there are no items in the past year's statistical report that raise immediate red flags. He said break and enter incidents are up about 7.5 per cent overall. The increase is mainly on the business side and vehicle thefts while break and enter incidents at residences are down. EPS handled 262 calls regarding minor thefts with 29 of those being unfounded. Of the 233 cases handled (228 in 2010), 29 led to charges while 46 were handled in some other manner. Of those 29 charged, 18 were men, five were women and six were young offenders.
There were 44 major theft incidents with 33 of those requiring the opening of a file (25 in 2010), an increase of 32 per cent.
On the traffic offences files, there were 1,748 actual situations that required police attention in 2011 compared with 1,609 in 2010. Of those, 1,422 led to charges being laid with a success rate of just under 90 per cent.
Regarding traffic offences under the Criminal Code, there were 97 active files opened in 2011 compared with 55 in 2010, an increase of 76.5 per cent.
Impaired driving charges were up by 2.5 per cent, 158 to 154 in 2010 with 123 leading to charges and a clearance rate in the court, or by other means, of just over 82 per cent.
Provincial statutes violations were up by 13.5 per cent to 908 in 2011, from 800 in 2010 with 96.4 per cent of those being cleared through the courts or by other means.
One area where the statistics declined was in other Criminal Code matters such as being in breach of recognizance, disturbing the peace, failure to attend court, failing to comply with probation orders or being in breach of the peace. There were 283 such incidents on file at EPS this past year compared with 348 in 2010, a 19.6 per cent decrease.
There was, however, a significant increase in the drug enforcement (trafficking) side of the statistical sheet with 93 actual cases handled in 2011 compared with just 45 cases in 2010, an increase of 106 per cent. This led to 13 adult men being charged with trafficking in 2011 and two male young offenders and two female young offenders. There were 76 drug possession charges laid in 2011 compared with 65 in 2010, an increase of nearly 17 per cent. Fifty-nine of those resulted in charges.
There were 20 other drug enforcement violations that led to further investigations and continuations compared with just five in 2010.
EPS reported that they opened files for nine sexual assault incidents this past year, compared with 16 in 2010, a decrease of 43.7 per cent.
One file that saw a big increase was in the area of crimes against the person, meaning such things as robbery, extortions, harassments and threats. There were 158 such valid incidents to look into in 2011 compared with 147 in 2010 with 26 resulting in charges being laid while 101 were handled by other means for a success rate of 80.4 per cent.
Assaults (excluding sexual assaults) numbered 154 in 2011 compared with 132 in 2010, an increase of 16.6 per cent with a successful clearance rate of just over 86 per cent, which included 65 actual charges being laid.
Other incidents that took up a lot of police time last year included crimes against property such as wilful damage events and mischief incidents. There were 294 of those to handle in 2011 compared with 276 in 2010. Fraud incidents were up substantially to 57 last year compared with 39 in 2010.
Referring to the break and enter incidents, there were 86 of them in 2011 and 80 in 2010 and there were even three arson incidents in 2011.
As the crime rate increased, EPS members made concentrated efforts to attack the problem on the public relations and promotions side, making 74 public appearances and community prevention presentations during the course of the year compared with 16 such events in 2010.
But still, there were a huge increases in calls for police to handle such things as abandoned vehicles, nuisance calls, animal capture or protection calls, false alarms and lost and found incidents in 2011 ... 1,152 of them in total compared with 695 calls of a similar nature in 2010, representing an increase of nearly 62 per cent.
"We see items such as frauds on the increase, which is a concern, but we're able to handle most of it thanks to additional training," said Block.
When it's all taken into context, he said the general public probably doesn't know of all the add-on training experiences that the members undertake during the course of the year.
"We send a lot of people to the Saskatchewan Police College for additional training in specific areas, not just the basic training. In fact we have one seat for Estevan at the college that gets filled for each course. We have rarely turned down an opportunity to receive additional training," Block said.
A few non-college courses also see Estevan police personnel in attendance. Last year there was an advanced course in forensic interviewing that three members took and two others took training on handling child exploitation cases. That was also outside the normal college course offerings.
"We enjoy good common ground with the local RCMP detachment. I'd say our relationship with them is excellent, and with us being within the budget, I'd just have to repeat that there were no surprises ... a lot of increase in activities, but no surprises," Block said in conclusion.
The EPS budget in 2011 was just under $3.66 million.
