While Estevan is still a statistically safe community, the official crime statistics from 2020 presented at last night's Board of Police Commissioners meeting showed some felonies were trending the wrong way. Assaults, including assault causing bodily harm, were up across the board. 

While general assault saw only a slight rise (109 cases up from 106 in 2019), assault causing bodily harm rose from nine cases in 2019 to 18 cases last year. Ask the police themselves, and they'll tell you they've got the beginnings of an idea as to why. 

"We're seeing an increase in the amount of meth within the city," said Police Chief Paul Ladouceur. "I think we're seeing a bit of an increase in some of the violence that goes along with that drug use within the city. It's something certainly that we're keeping our eye on and that we're watching very closely."

The news was not all bad, however. Estevan went through all of 2020 without a murder, attempted murder, or robbery, and cases of arson stayed at zero as well. There was also a noticeable decrease in impaired driving. 

"Awesome to see," Ladouceur said. "This has been a focus for this organization over the past number of years. This is due to (some) incredible work, Connie Hagel was recognized by MADD Canada as volunteer of the year in 2020. Her work has been tremendous, getting the word out, working with local establishments, working with media, this is not just the police that has resulted in these declines."

Impaired driving overall declined by 29 percent (89 offenses down from 126 in 2019) and drug-impaired driving took an even sharper downturn. After 24 incidents of that in 2019, 2020 saw just 14 such cases. 

"We really ramped up last year as far as getting our members out there and detecting impaired-by-drug drivers," Ladouceur said, "with roadside screening devices and drug recognition experts at our spot checks and so forth. I think there's been a heavy emphasis on this."

Another crime that rose significantly last year was mischief and willful damage, which jumped from 131 cases to 186. Ladouceur said the explanation for this increase is fairly straightforward. 

"We have a recent arrest in relation to graffiti that was being done all over the city," he said. "We did arrest an individual for those offenses, so those numbers, a lot of them were what we believe was one individual on a graffiti escapade you might say throughout the city."