The recent Board of Police Commissioners meeting took a look at some of the data from August, with a discussion of month-to-month and five-year averages.
Police Chief for the Estevan Police Service, Jamie Blunden, talks about what they saw in the month-to-month figures over August.
"Comparing August of this year to August of last year, when we look at crimes against persons, total violations were down slightly, 20 last year in August, 17 this year overall. When we look at crimes against property, it's slightly up, 39 in August 2024 to 48 this year."
The numbers for year-to-date are much more impressive, with BLunden detailing a number of categories which have seen decreases.
"When we look at year-to-date overall, all categories are down, so in 2024 versus 2025, total violations against crimes against persons were down about 12 per cent, from 127 to 112. The only one that's up in that area for the year-to-date is the assault-caused bodily harm, and just slightly up on the assaults. When we look at crimes against property, overall, things are looking really good there, down in all categories, about 7 per cent overall, from 306 in 2024 to 285 in 2025."
That includes areas like the Drugs and Substances Act, with trafficking and possession both down, along with criminal code traffic violations. Overall, a 5.7 per cent reduction in calls for service was seen for August 2025, with Blunden saying he's happy to see the current statistics.
Switching to their five-year averages, there are a couple of areas the EPS is watching out for.
"Crimes against persons were slightly up 5 per cent. Same with crimes against property, we're slightly up about 13 per cent, from 251 to 285 for the five-year average."
"Breaking it down a little bit, when we look at crimes against persons, the assaults are up about 15 per cent. We go from 75 to 87, as well as the assault-caused bodily harm again."
The increase was mainly attributed to domestic and school incidents.
Crimes against property are doing better, though Blunden notes some exceptions.
"The one exception to that is some of the theft of motor vehicles. Roughly a 52 per cent increase, 13.8 for the five-year average, to 21. A lot of that was take-auto with the owner's consent, and a lot of that has to do with whether they were charged in relation to the theft of a motor vehicle. But it's more of a take-auto, so a little bit minor in nature, but it's sort of deemed to be a theft of a motor vehicle."
Theft under $5,000 is also up 20 per cent, from 126 to 152. Notable items include local bicycles and shoplifting.