Another survey of crime data in Canada has shown that Estevan’s violent crime rates are in decline.

Maclean’s magazine released its annual rankings of Canada’s most violent cities earlier this month. It is similar to the Crime Severity Index released by Statistics Canada each year, but the Maclean’s ranking pays closer attention to violent crime in communities with at least 10,000 people.

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Estevan rated 101st out of 237 cities in the country with a rating of 71 in 2018, compared to the national average of 82.44. Estevan’s five-year change in crime is -13.24; only 25 communities in Canada had a bigger decrease.

While there are often similarities in the rankings for MacLean’s and Statistics Canada, there are differences. For example, North Battleford had the highest Crime Severity Index for 2018; while Thompson was first in the Maclean’s ranking.

The Maclean’s report then lists crimes into several different categories: homicide, assault and bodily harm; theft and property crime; drug offences; and youth crime. Each type of crime is also assigned a rate.

Estevan had 68 assaults, 12 sexual assaults and one firearms offence in 2018.

Police Chief Paul Ladouceur said Maclean’s tries to simplify the process brought forward by Statistics Canada.

“It’s an easy snapshot for people to go on and click on their city and see what the stats are for that city,” he said.

The police chief is pleased to see that Estevan has been trending downward in virtually all categories over the past five years. The violent crime rating is down, and the overall crime rate is down from 2013 to 2018.

“When we look at it overall, we’re seeing other communities and other municipalities in this province with reds and going up, and we’re going down.”

Different communities face different challenges, and he believes Estevan is doing well.

Ladouceur wasn’t surprised by the Maclean’s numbers, because the Statistics Canada numbers were released earlier this year, and the EPS tracks crime numbers throughout the year. Those numbers are released each month at the Estevan board of police commissioners.

“They give us a bit of an indication as to are we seeing as many calls for service in certain categories. Are we seeing those numbers go up or down throughout the year. So we keep a pretty close watch over that throughout the course of the year.”

There will be surprises throughout the year where numbers are higher or lower than expected, and sometimes they see a number that is an anomaly. The fraud rate, for example, showed that Estevan had 186 fraud-related calls last year, for a rate was 1,605.11. The Canadian average was 349.2.

“Is that a mistake in the reporting? Are we reporting them improperly? Is it a case of we’re just seeing more telephone type frauds? Or is it our community is better at reporting those fraud scams than other communities, because sometimes smaller communities tend to reach out more to their local police.”

Those in larger centres often won’t report the scam phone calls from people purporting to be with the Canada Revenue Agency or some of the other scams.

Ladouceur believes the EPS’s community engagement approach has worked well through youth nights, school presentations and police open houses. The EPS says a lot of people have been willing to call them when there’s an issue or when they notice something going on, which bodes well for the EPS.

“When you have 11,000 people looking for crime as opposed to 20-some (people), your results are going to magnify,” said Ladouceur.

The EPS has also placed an emphasis on cracking down on the drug trade, as Ladouceur believes it is a contributor to related crimes such as violence and thefts.

“We have done a lot of significant work when it comes to drug trafficking in this community, sending a strong message that if you’re going to traffic drugs in this community, you’re going to get caught.”

Impaired driving is another issue that the EPS has placed a lot of resources on, and it has resulted in a decrease in infractions over the past five years.

Ladouceur once again stressed, though, that statistics don’t paint the whole picture. Caution has to be exercised when placing too much emphasis on numbers, and he wants people to look at the broader picture of whether they feel safe in their community.