ESTEVAN — The Estevan Police Service received 789 calls for service in May, according to numbers released at the meeting of the Estevan board of police commissioners on June 20, up from the 608 calls that came in during May 2022.
In the first five months of this year, the EPS has received 3,124 calls for service, a 19.3 per cent increase from the 2,619 calls from Jan. 1-May. 31, 2022.
Calls for service this year remain down by 2.2 per cent from the five-year average of 3,196.
Criminal Code traffic violations and crimes against property are the two areas that saw a noticeable increase when compared to the previous year's data.
The first five months of the year generated 56 traffic-related charges under Criminal Code versus 37 a year earlier. Impaired driving/exceed-related offences lead with 44 cases, followed by seven impaired by drug charges and five dangerous driving and other charges.
Ten Criminal Code traffic violations were laid in May as opposed to 11 a year earlier. There were eight charges for impaired/exceed-related offences and two for impairment by drug. It's also up 19.1 per cent in comparison to 47 for the five-year average.
Crimes against property are at 126, up 31 per cent from 96 the previous year. Thefts under $5,000 (54) and mischief/willful damage (47) cases lead, and are followed by residential break and enters (20) to sum up the bulk of cases in this category in the first five months of 2023.
EPS had a spike in crimes against property in May as well with 42 occurrences as compared to 25 in May 2022, with 17 mischief/willful damage cases, followed by 14 thefts under $5,000, two thefts over $5,000 and one case of a business break and enter.
This category has seen a 12.3 per cent increase from 112.2 in the five-year average.
Last month, the EPS responded to 12 crimes against the person, with seven assaults, three sexual crimes and two assaults causing bodily harm. The number of assaults was down from 15 in May 2022.
In the first five months, there were 58 crimes against the person committed in Estevan, down from 61 a year earlier, with 40 assaults, 16 sexual crimes and two assaults causing bodily harm. However, when compared to the five-year average, this type of crime was up 5.1 per cent from 55.2, with sexual crimes up 56.9 per cent at 16 versus 10.2 on the five-year figure.
Charges under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act are at 19, down 10 per cent from 21 the previous year. Eleven charges were laid for possession and eight were for trafficking. There was one charge last month under the CDSA, the same as in May 2022. This May the charge was laid for possession.
The five-year-average for CDSA violations is one per cent lower than this year's.
The bylaw enforcement officer report for Special Const. Anna Volmer showed that she had 106 occurrences last month, led by 28 animal calls, 26 other bylaw calls, 23 parking violations and 11 unkempt property inspections.
So far this year, among the 560 calls for bylaw, the bulk of the occurrences have been 143 for other bylaw, 132 for parking violations, 84 for animal calls, 76 snow-removal notices and 45 unkempt property inspections.
