ESTEVAN -- The Estevan Police Service has seen a 75 per cent increase in crimes against property in the first two months of 2024 when compared to the same period a year earlier.
According to figures released at the March 12 meeting of the Estevan board of police commissioners, members dealt with 63 such crimes up to Feb. 29, as opposed to just 36 last year.
February saw more calls of this type as well, with 34 versus 19 in 2023. Included in the total were 13 mischief/wilful damage acts and as many thefts under $5,000, as well as four thefts of motor vehicles, three residential break and enters and one business break and enter.
In the first two months of the year, there were 24 thefts under $5,000, 23 mischief/wilful damage calls, nine thefts of motor vehicles, and four residential, two business and one other break and enter.
While there has been a significant increase in thefts of motor vehicles (just one vehicle was stolen in the first two months of 2023), Police Chief Rich Lowen said there are no patterns, as in four cases vehicles were taken without consent, and other cases occurred in different locations with no coinciding suspects involved or any other similar trends.
The same goes for thefts under $5,000, which went up from 13 in the first two months a year earlier, he said.
"There's also no relation between the occurrences. There was a theft from a vehicle, there were two of different Amazon packages [stolen], a theft of service from a taxi, one theft of fuel, three shoplifting [incidents] and random other ones. … Nothing that was specifically related that indicates any kind of concern," Lowen said.
As for the other Criminal Code statistics, there were nine crimes against the person in February, with six assaults and three sexual crimes, compared to 22 for February 2023.
So far this year, the EPS has had 26 crimes against the person, with 22 assaults, three sexual crimes and one robbery, which is down 13 per cent from 30 such charges in the first two months of last year.
There were just three charges under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act last month, all for trafficking, as compared to four for February 2023.
Five charges were laid under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act in the first two months of this year, with four for trafficking and one for possession, versus 14 a year earlier, which is a 64 per cent decline.
Eleven charges were laid for Criminal Code traffic violations last month, including nine for impaired/exceed-related offences, one for dangerous driving or other and one for impaired by drug. Thirteen were laid in the same month last year.
So far this year, there have been 24 such violations – 18 for impaired/exceed-related offences, two for impairment by drug and four for dangerous driving and other. There were 28 Criminal Code traffic violations in the first two months of 2023, which is a 14 per cent decrease on a year-to-date basis.
The EPS received 543 calls for service in February, close to the 525 a year earlier. In the first two months of the year, they responded to 1,107 calls, as compared to 1,117, which is a one per cent decline.
Five-year averages for each category are 23.4 for crimes against the person, 42.8 for crimes against property, 18.4 for Criminal Code traffic violations and 8.2 for the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
Also released was the February report for Spec. Const. Anna Volmer, the city's bylaw enforcement officer. It showed 24 parking complaints, 16 parking violations, 14 animal-related calls, eight unkempt property inspections, nine other bylaw violations, and six taxi bylaw related calls.
So far this year she has had a total of 128 occurrences, with 60 parking-related issues, 24 animal calls, 22 unkempt property inspections and 13 other bylaw instances leading the list of her activities.
