ESTEVAN — The Estevan Police Service’s activity level last year was down from the 2024 levels, and were also below the five-year average.
According to year-end numbers released at the Jan. 14 meeting of the Estevan board of police commissioners, the EPS had 7,082 calls for service in 2025, down 4.7 per cent from the 7,439 received the previous year.
Call volumes in each of the four crime categories were down.
Crimes against the person dropped 11 per cent from 174 in 2024 to 154 in 2025. The bulk of the calls in that category were assaults at 122, which was the same as 2024. The EPS also handled 15 sexual crimes, 14 assaults causing bodily harm, two robberies and one murder last year.
The EPS had 427 crimes against property, which was down roughly four per cent from 446 in 2024. The majority of the calls came from 229 crimes against property, down from 235 the previous year, and 122 mischief/willful damage incidents, down from 139. The EPS also had 28 thefts of a motor vehicle; 42 break and enters, with 31 for residential, nine for business and two listed as other; four thefts over $5,000; and two arsons.
The EPS also had 23 Controlled Drug and Substances Act (CDSA) incidents, including 16 for trafficking and seven for possession. It’s an eight per cent decrease from 25 the previous year.
A total of 110 Criminal Code traffic violations occurred, down 20 per cent from 138 the previous year. They had 66 impaired/exceed-related offences, 31 for impairment by drug and 13 for dangerous driving and other.
The EPS believes it could do better in some areas, said Police Chief Jamie Blunden, including thefts under $5,000, even though they were down. Motor vehicles thefts were up by two from 2024.
“If we’re looking at anywhere moving forward in 2026, crimes against property [would be it],” Blunden said. “We did have a very busy several months there where we had lots of thefts of bicycles, thefts that included cars that were taken without the owners’ consent. Those are areas that we’ll concentrate on this year.”
The five-year average for calls for service is 7,654. Category averages are 153 crimes against the person, 383 crimes against property, 129 Criminal Code traffic violations and 29 CSA violations. Crimes against property were the lone category in which 2025 was above the five-year average.
In December, the EPS received 500 calls for service, down from 562 in 2024. There were eight crimes against the person, with seven assaults and one assault causing bodily harm, down from 16 in 2024.
Twenty-five crimes against property were reported, versus 37 in 2024. The December 2025 calls included 13 thefts under $5,000, four mischief/wilful damage incidents, seven break and enters (four residential, two business and one other), and one theft of a motor vehicle.
Eleven incidents were under Criminal Code traffic violations, with five for impairment or exceed-related offences and six for impairment by drug. Twelve Criminal Code traffic violations were filed in December 2024.
There weren’t any Controlled Drug and Substances Act matters in December 2024 or 2025.
According to numbers previously supplied by the EPS, members had 7,946 calls for service in 2023, 6,568 in 2022 and 9,218 in 2021.
Also at the meeting, Robert Godfrey was sworn in as a member at large for the police board. He is in his first two-year term. Roberta DeRosier, the other member at large, is back for a third term. She was unable to attend and will be sworn in at a later date.
