ESTEVAN - Statistics Canada released its annual crime severity index (CSI) report on Thursday, and the data shows that Estevan's figure was at its highest level since 2015.
Estevan's figure stood at 115.48 for 2023, just the second time that Estevan has been above 100 since recording a 126.03 in 2015. Last year's rating for Estevan was at 87.25, one of the lowest recorded in the Energy City since the CSI was first tracked in 1998.
The number for Estevan was expected to be higher in part due to an incident on Nov. 1, 2023, in which Justice Guillas murdered his mother Karie. After he was arrested and taken to the Estevan Police Service building for processing, Justice Guillas gained control of a police firearm, and shot and wounded EPS Sgt. Braden Lonsberry. Guillas was then fatally shot by a member of the EPS.
It was the first homicide in Estevan since June 2021. Lonsberry returned to work just over a month after the incident.
"Everybody has to realize the context of the index readings and the reasons for them," Estevan Police Chief Rich Lowen said in an interview with the Mercury and SaskToday.
"One incident can have a big impact on a small community, and the incident that we had back on November 1 had a huge impact in terms of our numbers," he added later. "So, it's not surprising that the numbers are up given what occurred last year, but as always we don't like to see numbers go up. We like to see them go down."
Lowen said the incident – which would have counted a murder and an attempted murder to Estevan's rating – likely drove Estevan's CSI figure up by 30 points. If not for that incident, Lowen predicted the local CSI would have been close to the 2022 level.
There were also some assaults that took place last year, he said.
He also cautioned that Estevan's number for 2024 likely won't drop much, thanks to an incident that occurred in early April that resulted in attempted murder and nine other charges against William Joshua Curtis. That case remains before the courts.
Estevan's violent crime severity index number for 2023 stood at 163.92, which is the highest it has ever been. It was at 117.69 in 2022.
The non-violent crime number was 97.10, up from 75.82 in 2022.
"You could have one individual that could be responsible for three, four, five or six events, six thefts, and that one individual can have a large impact on our statistics. The nice part is when we make an arrest on something like that, it also has a big impact."
The weighted clearance rate was 47.55, up from 46.45 the previous year. It's the highest figure since a 54.57 was record in 2017.
"Our officers are doing their jobs and making the arrests they need to," said Lowen.
Statistics Canada has stopped releasing a comprehensive ranking for police services that serve a population with at least 10,000 people, because of the impact one or two incidents can have on smaller communities. Several municipalities that typically rank highly on the CSI asked for the change.
"I don't agree with that method of reporting, because it's not accurate and it gives a disproportion to the smaller communities. If you're going to look at the severity of crime, you have to look at the history of crime that happened in the city, and you can only compare it to itself."
If there is going to be a comparison on a wide scale, such as on a national basis, Lowen said it should be small cities compared with small cities, not small cities with big cities.
"It's a whole different ball game," said Lowen.
Despite the increase, Estevan still had the second-lowest CSI ranking among the six Saskatchewan cities with a municipal police force; only Weyburn (83.09) was lower.
And among Saskatchewan cities with a population of at least 10,000, Estevan was seventh out of 11 jurisdictions; Swift Current, Weyburn, Warman and Martensville were lower.
"Estevan is a very safe place to be, and … in comparison to other cities, although we don't like to compare to everyone in the province, it is always better to be towards the lower in the province," said Lowen.
In the rural areas, the area covered by the Estevan RCMP had a CSI of 67.81, down from 76.53 the previous year. The violent crime number was at 51.28, down from 71.13, while the non-violent crime figure was at 74.99, a drop from 79.34.
The Carnduff RCMP's CSI number was at 46.44, down from the 49.88 recorded in 2022. The violent crime number stood at 25.53, a drop from 43.38 recorded the previous year, while the non-violent number was at 55.19, up from 52.90.
The Carlyle detachment area's CSI stood at 125.27, up from 115.99 in 2022. The violent crime number was 157.52, up from 129.56 in 2022. The non-violent number was at 113.44, up slightly from 111.55 in 2022.
The Crime Severity Index is a measure of police-reported crime that assigns a value to the different types of crimes, tabulates the number and then assigns a value based on a population of 100,000 people.
