ESTEVAN - Members of the Estevan Police Service (EPS) responded to 527 calls for service and other infractions in January, according to the monthly numbers released at the Feb. 16 meeting of the Estevan board of police commissioners.
The first month of 2022 turned out to be a bit quieter than the same period of time a year earlier, when the EPS responded to 635 calls (a 17 per cent decrease).
The EPS received reports of 11 crimes against the person in January, with six assaults, three sexual crimes and two assaults causing bodily harm. Last year at this time, they had only five crimes against person, with four sexual crimes and one assault.
Estevan Police Chief Richard Lowen said while the number of crimes against person was up in comparison to the year before, there wasn't any specific reason.
"It just happened to be a busy month," Lowen said.
There were 19 crimes against property last month, with three residential break and enter cases, five thefts under $5,000 and 11 mischief or willful damage complaints. In comparison to January 2021, when there were 22 crimes against property, the EPS saw a slight decrease in this type of crimes, mainly in mischief/willful damage cases, which accounted for 16 last year.
Police handled four charges under the Controlled Drug and Substances Act (CDSA), just one more in comparison to January 2021. One charge was for trafficking and three were for possession.
The EPS had five Criminal Code traffic violations in January, with two for impaired or exceed related offences and three for impairment by drug. Last year in January they handled three such violations, one for impaired or exceed related offences and two for impairment by drug.
Also at the meeting, the monthly report from Special Const. Morgan Prentice, the city's bylaw enforcement officer, showed that there were 65 occurrences in January. Included in that total were three unkempt property inspections, 33 parking violations and one parking complaint, eight animal calls, six snow removal notices, two summons, seven taxi bylaw occurrences and five other bylaw violations. Last year in January city's bylaw enforcement officer had 104 occurrences.
