The Estevan Police Service (EPS) experienced an increase in call volumes in 2019.
Numbers supplied to the Mercury last week show that the EPS handled 8,467 calls for service last year, which is up 3.7 per cent from 8,162 calls in 2018.
Police Chief Paul Ladouceur noted the total numbers of calls for 2019 could still increase as well, because the figures don’t include investigations from last year that are ongoing. If charges are laid from investigations that began in 2019, then they will count towards last year’s numbers.
“We’re not seeing a reduction in calls for service. We’re not seeing less work,” said Ladouceur. “Often times people make the comments ‘Well, the economy’s lower. Why do we need all these police officers?’ The proof is in the pudding … when the economy goes down, often times our services are required more than ever.”
Ladouceur pointed out that the monthly numbers released at the meetings of the Estevan board of police commissioners indicated there would be an increase, so he’s not surprised the numbers for the year are higher than 2018.
“I wouldn’t say that’s a surprise given the economy. There’s often a correlation between the economy and the calls for service that we get,” said Ladouceur.
The calls for service total includes speeding tickets and other infractions handled by the EPS during the year, and complaints for fraud-related calls. And many of the calls the EPS receives are not criminal in nature, as they could include public disorder, mental health-related calls, neighbour disputes or someone looking for advice.
If there is a sudden death, the police will be called to investigate to ensure it’s not criminal in nature.
“These are some of the calls that the public doesn’t see on a day to day basis that the police are responding to,” said Ladouceur.
When looking at the Criminal Code charges, assaults causing bodily harm went from seven to nine, and while that might not seem like much, it’s still a concern in a community of this size that nine people were the victim of a serious assault, he said.
Sexual assault reported incidents were down 82 per cent, from 33 in 2018 to six in 2019.
As for crimes against property, break and enters were up, with 27 residential break and enters in 2019, compared to 15 the previous year, while the number of business break and enters grew from three to six.
Thefts under $5,000 decreased, from 183 in 2018 to 133 last year, and mischief crimes had an increase of nine per cent from 113 to 123.
Drug trafficking charges remained steady at 12 from 2018 to 2019, while possession charges dropped from 61 to 25. Ladouceur believes the legalization of cannabis possession in late 2018 was a factor in the drop in possession charges, but not as much as some might think.
“We really didn’t lay a whole lot of marijuana charges, quite frankly, so often times officers were using discretion if it was small amounts of marijuana prior to legalization. We all knew legalization was coming in 2018, so there was a lot of discretion used when it came to simple possession.”
The real drug-related issue at this time, he said, is with methamphetamines.
“I predict it’s going to continue to be a problem in this community,” said Ladouceur. “It’s certainly quickly becoming the drug of choice in this community. So if there’s any warning or forewarning we will be actively investigating those types of incidents.”
It’s a very nasty drug that is highly addictive and causes people to act irrationally, he said. The need for the next fix can lead to assaults, thefts and break and enters.
“I suspect that we’re going to see a bit of an increase in meth use in this community, and I suspect we’re going to see some of those stats continue to rise.”
Charges for impaired driving by alcohol were down eight per cent, from 137 in 2018 to 126 in 2019, but that was offset by an increase for impaired by drug charges, from seven in 2018 to 23 in 2019, which Ladouceur said is due to the legalization of marijuana, having more drug recognition experts available, and having the roadside screening equipment.
He expects the number of people charged for impaired by drug will continue to climb.
“We’re putting more of an emphasis on impaired by drug, so it’s not surprising to see. It’s not necessarily meaning there’s more people out there driving while impaired by drug; it means we’re catching more of them.”
He is pleased to see the number of drunk drivers going down.
“An eight per cent reduction is a pretty good number. We have a long way to go to get where we want to be.”
The clearance rates for 2019 will come in July, when Statistics Canada releases its annual crime severity index (CSI) report. Estevan’s CSI rating has been sliding in recent years, to the point where 2017 and 2018 were two of the lowest numbers since Stats. Canada started tracking the number for Estevan. He hopes the local figure will continue to decline.
