RCMP detachment remains a busy office

While the Estevan detachment of the RCMP has experienced a decline in activity amid the economic slowdown, the officers at the detachment have remained busy.

Corporal Keith Kosior has been the acting non-commissioned officer in charge of the detachment for nearly a year, replacing Cate Rigaux, who retired in May 2015. Kosior has spent the past year travelling back and forth between Estevan and his base detachment in Fillmore. 

“I have been working here, and trying to do some work at the Fillmore detachment, as well,” said Kosior. “It has been busy.” 

Officers have been able to concentrate on some of their other duties since their call volume has diminished. 

“With a lot of the movement we had in the area, and the increased number of people in the area, obviously, calls for service were going to increase as well,” said Kosior. “But now the calls for service have decreased, compared to what they were before, which was at quite a high level, for the amount of members we had here.” 

Traffic accidents and driving infractions continue to account for a lot of their calls for service, even though the amount of traffic on southeast highways is down. They also continue to receive a lot of complaints from the rural areas regarding thefts. 

“That ranges from people’s residences to thefts of vehicles to thefts of equipment,” said Kosior. 

They also deal with crimes against other people, such as assaults, but those numbers aren’t as high. 

“We’ve dealt with the same types of complaints, just less volume,” he said. 

And while domestic disputes often increase during an economic slowdown, due to the stress of lost hours or lost employment, the local RCMP hasn’t necessarily noticed a spike in domestic calls in the last few months. 

The RCMP currently has six officers. Constable Craig Park arrived in Estevan a few weeks ago, and will be promoted to the corporal position soon. He will also be the detachment supervisor. 

“He’s been able to take some of the burden of the day-to-day detachment operations from me,” said Kosior. “Previous to that, the members were helping out.” 

The new detachment commanding officer, who is a sergeant, is expected to arrive in Estevan later this month or early in June. 

Kosior said they can’t reveal the new sergeant’s name until the officer arrives in Estevan. 

The other constables are DJ Brown, Cris Classen, Chad Mehl, Peter Donaldson, Greg LaRose and Craig Virostek. Cathy Jesse is the office’s administrator. 

“The detachment supervisor position that Craig Park is moving into is a new position here in Estevan,” said Kosior. “The position was just created. There was no one in that position previously.” 

Kosior is confident the RCMP detachment can meet the demands of the Estevan area moving forward if call volumes remain the same and if they maintain their current staffing levels.