ESTEVAN - After some of its lowest numbers in recent history, Estevan’s crime severity index (CSI) figure jumped in 2020, and with it, so did Estevan’s place in the national rankings.
Statistics Canada released the annual calculation on July 27. The CSI ranking for the area patrolled by the Estevan Police Service was at 108.27 for last year, the first time the CSI has been above 100 since it reached 126.03 in 2015.
The overall CSI ranking had been at around 90 in 2018 and 2019. It fell to a record-low level of 75.29 in 2017.
The violent crime rating for Estevan was at 78.53 last year, compared to 61.56 for 2019. The non-violent CSI figure was at 118.72, compared with 100.40 the previous year, or an 18.25 per cent increase.
The weighted clearance rate for Estevan was at 39.66 per cent, down slightly from 40.6 per cent in 2019.
Estevan’s CSI ranking left it 53rd in the country among policing agencies that serve an area with at least 10,000 people, and seventh among the 11 policing agencies rated in Saskatchewan, including both municipal and RCMP.
Ironically, Weyburn was just two spots higher than Estevan, in 51st spot, with a CSI figure of 108.47
Among the six Saskatchewan cities with a municipal police force, Estevan rated fifth. Only Moose Jaw was lower than Estevan in 59th at 104.28.
Estevan’s violent crime CSI ranking left it 116th in the country, while its non-violent crime ranking was 40th.
Estevan was 88th in Canada in 2019.
Thompson, Man., led the country with an overall CSI value of 454.03. North Battleford was the top Saskatchewan community, in second spot at 421.52. Prince Albert was the only other Saskatchewan community to crack the top 10 at 249.28.
The Estevan RCMP, meanwhile, had a CSI rating of 92.09, down 4.25 per cent from the 96.18 recorded in 2019.
The violent crime severity index stood at 64.58, up from 52.22 the previous year, while the non-violent crime severity index figure was at 101.77, compared with 111.76 in 2019.
The RCMP was not included in the national rankings, as its service area has a population below 10,000.
Police-reported crime across the country, as measured by the CSI, decreased eight per cent in 2020 —falling from 79.8 in 2019 to 73.4 in 2020. The CSI for 2020 was also 11 per cent lower than a decade earlier in 2010.
The CSI measures the volume and severity of police-reported crime in Canada, and has a base index value of 100 for 2006. The police-reported crime rate, which measures the volume of crime, also fell 10 per cent in 2020 to 5,301 incidents per 100,000 Canadians.
In 2020, Canadian police reported over two million Criminal Code incidents (excluding traffic offences), 195,015 less than in 2019.
