The Estevan RCMP keeps busy with their main duties as well as community involvement. The detachment is responsible for providing policing services to six RMs surrounding the city of Estevan including the RMs of Estevan, Benson, Browning, Cambria, Coalfields and Cymri and all the communities within those RMs.
Just a couple of months ago Saskatchewan RCMP launched a new province-wide Crime Watch Advisory Network. That is one of the projects that Estevan RCMP is currently focused on.
“That’s a good thing that we’ve implemented here in the province. Obviously, our goal is to reduce crime and to keep our community safe. I think it’s going a long way so we can get notifications out there from the local RCMP detachments to the communities and people who live in them. I think that’s one of the key things that we’ve been working hard on lately," said Estevan RCMP Sgt. Jeff Clarke.
And there already have been some positive results.
“We’ve put a few crime watch network advisory notifications, and we have had positive results. We will actually be putting one out here shortly just to advise the public about some items that were located that had been stolen in the past. And part of it was as a direct result of the Crime Watch Advisory Network,” said Clarke.
With and without the system, Estevan RCMP was witnessing a decline in crime in the area. On a year to date basis, there was a 29 per cent decrease in property crimes.
A lot of it has to do with the RCMP putting all possible efforts into making the community a safer place and the public working along with officers, keeping them advised of things going on in their communities, and any suspicious or criminal activities.
“I’d like to say it’s a good partnership between us and the communities,” said Clarke.
There are three RCMP units within the City of Estevan. The Estevan RCMP Detachment provides general duty police work. Any investigation or event that usually fall under police responsibilities is what the detachment responds to including assaults, break and enters, impaired drivers, crime prevention, criminal record checks, community involvement and much more.
The second one, the Estevan Combined Traffic Services of Saskatchewan unit, enforces provincial and federal traffic laws, including speeding, registration or insurance infractions and impaired driving to keep roads and highways safe. The traffic unit includes members of the RCMP and two members of the Estevan Police Service.
The third one is the Integrated Border Enforcement Team (IBET), which deals with criminal activity crossing the Canada-U.S. border. The unit works closely with Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and U.S. Border Agencies on such cases as human smuggling, international drug trafficking, failing to report, illegal crossings and other.
All three units are constantly involved in different activities.
“In the policing world there are always things to be doing, there is always stuff going on,” said Clarke.
One of the main duties of the Estevan RCMP Detachment is crime prevention and reduction, which includes reducing outstanding warrants, carrying out condition checks on offenders, conducting pro-active rural patrols and implementing the Rural Crime Watch Advisory Network mentioned above.
Besides, the local RCMP pays a lot of attention to employee health and wellness, which means that they ensure members get the proper training to complete their jobs proficiently and keep the public safe and provide a positive work environment.
Not the least of importance is the police-community relations, in frames of which in partnership with Estevan Fire and Rescue Service, the Estevan RCMP recently conducted the car seat safety clinic.
The RCMP Search and Rescue group that Clarke is a part of, is also looking forward to working with the new Southeast Search and Rescue chapter.
“The one that is starting here is the civilian side of it, so we obviously support them and they support us and we work together,” said Clarke.
Moreover, Estevan RCMP will be helping to deliver drug awareness presentations to schools in Lampman, Macoun and Bienfait in May and June. Officers also attend rural communities and events, school presentation and visits and municipal council meetings.
“Every year we have a baseball game with Special Olympics here in Estevan… We also attend various events within the communities, whether it be Canada Day celebrations, we are always involved in that with the parade in Bienfait. We are always involved with Lampman sports days. We are always involved with the Macoun … (events) and anything else that might be going on within the city,” said Clarke.
He underlined that Estevan RCMP is always looking for ways to assist and keep the communities safe.
