ESTEVAN - The Estevan Police Service continued to see an increase in the number of calls to start the year, but the figures are still down from the five-year average.
Numbers released at the March 28 meeting of the Estevan board of police commissioners showed that the Estevan Police Service had 1,088 calls for service in the first two months of the year, up 15 per cent from the 947 they had in the first two months of last year.
They had 500 calls in February of this year, up from 426 to start 2022.
In the first two months of this year, the EPS had 20 crimes against the person, with 18 for assault and two sexual crimes. They received 30 in the first two months of 2022.
There were 36 crimes against property in January and February, with 15 mischief-willful damage complaints, 13 thefts under $5,000, seven residential break and enters and one theft of a motor vehicle. They had 28 such incidents in the first two months of last year.
Police Chief Rich Lowen noted they had a look at the crimes against property, and they don't appear to be related to each other or following a specific pattern.
The EPS had 13 Controlled Drugs and Substances Act charges to start the year, with five charges for trafficking and eight for possession. They had nine CDSA charges in the first two months a year earlier.
The big increase has been Criminal Code traffic violations, with 28 charges so far this year, more than three times as many as the nine charges they had in January and February a year earlier. The EPS has had 18 charges for impaired/exceed-related offences, four for impairment by drug and six for dangerous driving and other.
As for the five-year averages, the EPS averaged 1,171 calls in the first two months of the year from 2018-2022, with 18.6 crimes against the person, 36.2 crimes against property, 16.4 Criminal Code traffic violations and 7.2 CDSA charges.
The February report from Special Const. Anna Volmer, who is the bylaw enforcement officer, showed that she had 129 occurrences, bringing her total for the first two months of the year to 251. The bulk of the activity so far this year has been 73 snow removal notices, 56 parking violations, 24 animal calls and 17 unkempt property inspections. Forty-nine of her calls were classifieds as "other bylaw".
