The Estevan Police Service had another busy month in February, as the early year trend for an increase in calls for service continued.
The EPS had 673 occurrences last month, bringing the total for the year to 1,439. That total includes tickets and calls that didn’t result in criminal charges.
In the first two months of 2019, the EPS had 1,222 calls, representing an 18 per cent increase.
As for crime stats, the EPS had 14 crimes against people last month, with 10 assaults, three sexual crimes and one assault causing bodily harm. There were 12 crimes against people in February 2019.
So far this year, the EPS has handled 22 crimes against the person.
There were 21 crimes against property, with nine mischief/wilful damage incidents, seven cases of theft under $5,000, three residential break-and-enters, one business break-in and one theft of a motor vehicle. In February 2019, there were 12 crimes against property.
So far this year there have been 60 crimes against property, nearly double the 33 the EPS had in the first two months of 2019.
The EPS had just one charge under the Controlled Drug and Substances Act in February, which was for trafficking. So far this year, they have had six charges, with three for trafficking and three more for production.
Eleven charges were laid last month for Criminal Code Traffic violations, compared with eight in 2019. All 11 charges were for impaired or exceed-related charges.
So far this year, 19 impaired or exceed-related offences have been issued, and two impaired by drug charges have been laid.
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The monthly bylaw enforcement officer’s report for February was released. In her first full month on the job, Special Constable Morgan Prentice handled 89 occurrences, with 49 of those for parking violations and six for parking complaints. There were also 14 snow removal notices and 13 unkempt property inspections.
