ESTEVAN - The Estevan Police Service received 570 calls for service in September, according to numbers released at the Estevan board of police commissioners meeting held on Oct. 4. The monthly number is almost on par with the same data from a year earlier when EPS had to deal with 557 calls.
Criminal Code traffic violations saw the highest increase on both monthly and year-to-date basis.
There were 19 such violations in total in September, as opposed to just seven a year earlier. Included in the total this year were 12 impaired/exceed-related offences, four impaired by drug violations and three dangerous driving and other offences.
In the first nine months of the year, the total for the Criminal Code traffic violations came to 118, including 91 impaired/exceed-related, 14 impaired by drug and 13 dangerous driving and other charges. A year earlier the total over the same period of time in Estevan was 76, which is a 55 per cent increase on a year-to-date basis.
As of the end of September, the EPS had 6,220 calls for service, as opposed to 5,006 in the first nine months of 2022, which is a 24.3 per cent jump.
The EPS handled 106 crimes against the person in the first nine months of this year, a seven per cent decrease from the 114 they had for the same time period a year ago.
Crimes against property are at 294, up 10 per cent from 268 the previous year. And charges under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act are at 25, which is on par with the previous year.
Last month, the EPS responded to 10 crimes against the person, with seven assaults, two assaults causing bodily harm and one sexual crime. The number of assaults was down from 13 in September 2022.
In the first nine months of this year, out of the 106 crimes against the person, there were 80 assaults, 20 sexual crimes and six assaults causing bodily harm.
For crimes against property in September, the EPS had 33, with 13 thefts under $5,000, 12 mischief/willful damage complaints, three thefts over $5,000, three thefts of a motor vehicle and two residential break and enters. Last September, EPS dealt with 48 crimes against property.
So far this year, out of the 294 crimes against property, 144 were for theft under $5,000, 97 were for mischief or willful damage, 31 were for residential break and enters, 10 were thefts of vehicles, eight were thefts over $5,000, two were business break and enters and one was listed as other break and enter.
Although the EPS announced a drug bust on Sept. 25, in which three people were charged with trafficking cocaine, possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking, and possession of property obtained by crime under $5,000, the monthly statistic showed that there were two charges last month under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, one for trafficking and one for possession. There were no such charges laid last September. In the first nine months of the year, there have been 12 trafficking charges and 13 for possession.
The bylaw enforcement officer report for Special Const. Anna Volmer showed that she had 79 occurrences last month, led by 22 unkempt property violations, 21 animal calls, 10 other bylaw calls and eight animal impounds.
So far this year, among the 1,037 calls for bylaw, the bulk of the occurrences have been 194 for unkempt property inspections, 161 for parking violations, 203 for animal calls, 234 for other bylaw, 76 for snow removal notices, 33 for taxi inspections, 41 for parking complaints, 36 for animal impounds, 25 for animal violations and 20 for cat traps.
