Estevan’s Crime Severity Index (CSI) has fallen fast in the last five years and that dramatic fall has put Estevan at the top of the list of declining rates of crime.
Estevan was measured in Canada with a CSI of 76, which is a drop of 58.54 from 2012’s CSI of 134.2. That CSI rating of 76 is still slightly higher than the national average of 70.96. The violent crime severity index is down to 72 from the five-year average of 75.25, ranking 93rd overall in Canada.
“We’ve been working pretty diligently in the last few years in trying to get our crime rate down,” said Estevan Police Chief Paul Ladouceur. “A few years back we were on the higher scale when it came to the crime severity index. Certainly it’s always pleasing to see those numbers start to decline, especially as rapidly as they are.”
Crime severity index is one measure they use to determine how they’re doing as a police organization. Ladouceur said a community can have a few major incidents that can raise that level substantially, but overall it’s a proud moment to the staff to help indicate that what they’re doing is working.
“There are other factors that play into the reduction that we’re mindful of, too,” he said. “The oil has declined as everybody knows and with that there’s always the potential for that to have an impact on crime rates as well. But when we’re seeing numbers this large and the leaps that we’re seeing, we know that it’s more than just a decline in oil.”
Ladouceur said they have worked hard to build community engagement and that has had a huge impact.
“I think when there’s that trust within the community, that the police will act on information that is provided by the community, they’re more apt to engage the police service in fighting crime,” he said. “I think we’re seeing that now more so than ever before. People can pick up the phone… and have that trust.”
It’s one thing to call the police but he said sometimes people don’t hear back from the police when it comes to the results of any investigation from information the public may present.
“I think it’s good practice to get back in touch with these people and say ‘Look, you provided us with this information… this is what we did with this information and this is the result because of it,’” Ladouceur said. “That leads people to believe they’re having an impact.”
Internal changes within the police service have helped change their capacity for investigation as well, he said. They created a drug intelligence unit and have a complete cellphone analytics lab.
“I think the structure plays a large part in our ability to combat crime,” he said.
Ladouceur said so much spinoff crime is as a result of drugs and the drug trade, and they’ve attacked that with their drug intelligence unit.
“I’ve been in policing for 27 years and whether it be meth or cocaine, a lot of times the spilloff crime that comes along with that, whether it be thefts or home invasions, or violence, is a direct result of drugs,” he said. “We’ve really put an emphasis on combating that major issue of crime within the city and it’s certainly paid off huge dividends.”
Still, there are a lot of aspects of the CSI that are still individually higher than the national average. Cocaine production or trafficking is at a rate of 112.44 per 100,000 people, which is down locally but still nearly six times the national rate of 19.73
Sexual assaults are at a rate of 103.79, again down locally but far above the national rate per 100,000 people of 56.56.
And the impaired driving rate is at 856.25 per 100,000 people, a lot higher than the national rate of 194.31. The Estevan Police Service has been taking a multifaceted approach to impaired driving, Ladouceur said. He said they’re dealing with it through education, enforcement and deterrents, and also having the community make it known in that it’s not socially acceptable.
“We can’t just arrest our way out of impaired driving,” Ladouceur said. “The reality is it was to be socially and culturally unacceptable in our community and in the province.”
They’ve been working at educating the staff at liquor establishments, and also recently helped establish a Mothers Against Drunk Driving group in Estevan and have been performing high visibility checkstops.
“And those checkstops aren’t just for enforcement but they’re for deterrents as well,” he said. “People see the police out there very often, stopping drivers at random to check their sobriety, it creates that deterring effect. People aren’t sure if they’re going to be checked and stopped on the way home from a party or a bar, and it makes them think twice about getting a safe ride home.”
Ladouceur said he’s confident they’ll be seeing the effects from those checkstops down the road, even if the rate spikes for a short time before going down again.
One of the community engagement initiatives they started this year that was suggested was putting forth the names of those charged with impaired driving into the media.
“That isn’t just a case of scaring people by that fact their name may appear in the paper, that’s… should the public have a right to know if someone has been caught driving impaired and subsequently has a licence suspension and isn’t able to operate a motor vehicle, if that person is seen on the roadway, it gives the public the ability to contact us.”
