Estevan experienced mixed results in this year’s Crime Severity Index report, which was released by Statistics Canada late last month.
The Crime Severity Index is an annual calculation that takes the number of charges laid by a police service, and assigns weight based on their severity. Homicides, assaults and other violent crimes are given a greater influence, while lesser crimes, such as mischief and small thefts, have less influence.
The figure is expressed as a rate per 100,000 people.
Estevan’s Crime Severity Index for 2015 was 127.73, which was an 11.71 per cent increase from 114.34 the previous year. But the city’s violent Crime Severity Index was down by 46 per cent, from 141.07 in 2014 to 84 in 2015.
The decrease in that category can largely be attributed to an alleged homicide in Estevan that occurred in 2014. In a small city like Estevan, a homicide will weigh heavily on a community’s result.
The non-violent Crime Severity Index for Estevan rose by 37.36 per cent, from 104.38 to 143.38 in 2015.
Estevan police Chief Paul Ladouceur urged caution with the findings, because they are formula-based, and one major incident in a small city greatly influence the findings.
“I’m more focused on the individual numbers than I am the overall index to see where we’re standing in certain areas,” he said in an interview with the Mercury.
In the case of violent crimes, they are usually drug related, or they involve people who are known to each other.
“It’s not acts of random violence necessarily occurring,” said Ladouceur.
The EPS has seen an increase in the number of assaults, which Ladouceur believes can be attributed to a rise in domestic incidents, and that will have an impact on a community’s crime severity figure. There was also an alleged case of criminal negligence causing death that would impact Estevan’s ranking.
At the same time, the number of impaired driving incidents is down. The EPS went from 114 of those charges under the Criminal Code in 2014 to 68 in 2015. Ladouceur expects that number to continue to decline.
“I’ve said this before, that when the economy goes down, our workload goes up, and I think we’re seeing that trend this (past) year, so it’s not surprising that we’re seeing a bit of a spike in certain areas,” said Ladouceur. “If we look at property crime violations, the total number of violations went from 62 to 83, as far as charges go.”
The number of property crimes would play a role in the increase in Estevan’s non-violent crime rate.
Ladouceur believes the growing number of specialized units within the Estevan Police Service, such as the addition of a forensics officer and the expansion of the criminal investigations division, will result in a decrease in the number of charges, because the presence of those units will serve as a deterrent to crime.
But he wouldn’t be surprised if those units cause the index to rise, since there could be more charges laid.
“With statistics, we always have to be careful with how we are using the statistics, and keeping in mind that they’re only one measure of success and how you’re moving forward as a police organization,” said the police chief.
“I’m very cautious when it comes to statistics … because if I put more officers on the road, and set up more spot checks throughout the city every night from Monday to Friday, our impaired driving charges are going to go through the roof. Do we have a problem with impaired driving, or are we catching more?”
Some people might have been expecting to see the Crime Severity Index decrease, because the number of people in the city, particularly transient workers, is down. But Ladouceur believes tensions are high for those who are out of work, and some turn to crime because they need money.
“There are so many theories behind this, that it’s hard to conceptualize everything,” said Ladouceur.
The Crime Severity Index is one measure that the police have access to, he said, when benchmarking a community’s safety and the progress they are making in the fight against crime.
Statistics Canada calculates a Crime Severity Index for all policing agencies in Canada, including rural areas, although Statistics Canada urges caution with findings for areas that have less than 5,000 people.
In the case of the Estevan RCMP detachment, which patrols rural communities surrounding Estevan, their overall Crime Severity Index was 75.48, which was an 8.96 per cent decrease from 82.91 the previous year. It was at 126.08 in 2013.
The violent Crime Severity Index was at 32.49, which was down by 52.95 per cent from 69.05 in 2014, while the non-violent index was at 90.97, which was an increase of 3.62 per cent from 87.79 the previous year.
