ESTEVAN - The Estevan Police Service saw a slight decrease in call volumes in July, but the overall number of calls remains up for the first seven months of the year.
The Estevan board of police commissioners gathered on Thursday for its lone meeting of the summer, and they went through the crime statistics for June and July.
The EPS had 858 calls for service in June, a dramatic increase from the 628 they had a year earlier. The tally for June includes more than 80 tickets and other infractions from a two-day Selective Traffic Enforcement Program blitz.
As for July, the EPS had 645 calls for service, compared to 673 for the same month in 2022. For the first seven months of the year, the agency had 4,904 calls for service, a 25.1 per cent increase from the same period in 2022, when they had 3,920.
So far this year, the EPS has handled 88 crimes against people, the same number as in 2022. There have been 67 assaults, 17 sexual crimes and four assaults causing bodily harm.
The EPS has had 217 crimes against property, a 15 per cent increase from the 188 in 2022. There have been 107 thefts under $5,000, 72 mischief or willful damage calls, 27 residential break and enters, five thefts of a vehicle, four thefts over $5,000, one business break and enter and one arson.
Member-at-large Roberta DeRosier asked about the increase in residential break and enters from 13 for the first seven months of 2022 to 27 this year. She wanted to know if there has been an awareness campaign in the media about the issue. Police Chief Rich Lowen responded they often remind the public about the need to secure their home and belongings.
The number of residential break and enter was at two for July compared to three a year earlier.
Twenty-two charges have been laid under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, with 12 for possession and 10 for trafficking. Twenty-four charges were laid last year under the CDSA.
And the EPS has laid 74 charges under the Criminal Code traffic violations, up from 59 at the same time a year ago. Fifty-five were impaired/exceed-related offences, 10 were for impairment by drug and nine were for dangerous driving and other.
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The monthly reports for Spec. Const. Anna Volmer, who is the city's bylaw enforcement officer, show that she responded to 107 calls for service in June and 100 in July.
In the first seven months of the year, she had responded to 870 occurrences, led by 161 animal calls, 144 parking violations, 149 unkempt property inspections, 76 snow-removal notices and 201 classified as other bylaw.
For the same period a year ago, she had 891 occurrences.
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During the inquiries portions of the meeting, City Coun. Rebecca Foord asked about the recently-released movie The Sound of Freedom and the amount of discussion it has created in the community regarding human trafficking. She suggested a campaign on how people can protect their children, especially now that school will be starting soon.
She suggested something that reminds people about being careful about what they put on social media and to talk to their kids about the risks of these platforms.
