Winnipeg police defend response times after bake shop robbery

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Winnipeg police are defending its response time to a recent bakery robbery amid a spike in retail theft and violence that prompted the province to offer added funding to help combat the problem.

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At a news conference at Winnipeg Police Services downtown headquarters on Thursday, Insp. Gord Spado, who oversees the communications division, detailed a robbery call Saturday evening from Cinnaholic on McPhillips Street.

An employee said a person came around the counter, went through a gate, and stole money from the till while frightened employees fled the business out the back door. The suspect had left the area when the call was made, and Spado said it was classified by police as Priority 3, which is an urgent person event.

Spado said both the employee and owner were told that they may not be able to have officers respond until the next day, depending on how busy they were with higher-priority calls. Staff eventually ended up flagging down officers in the area on a lunch break.

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“We understand that these types of events, not only for the employees but for the owner of the business, are traumatic events and they’re very stressful times in people’s lives,” Spado said, noting the call could have easily been downgraded due to the lack of immediate threat.

“This is the worst time in their lives. They don’t call us because they’re having a good day, right? We understand that frustration but we have to be cognizant of the higher-priority calls.”

Quick response time was seen as the most important aspect of policing for Winnipeggers in a 2024 citizen survey, with 91% of respondents rating it as important, and 39% rating response times as excellent or good, the lowest of eight aspects tested.

The WPS began a retail theft initiative this year. A number of recent incidents added violence against staff to the loss of goods.

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“Retail theft is a large problem in the city and that’s why a lot of retail businesses that can afford it will actually hire special duty officers to be present at their locations. Do we have a retail theft problem? Absolutely we do,” Spado said.

While details are few, the province said Wednesday it will fund overtime pay for four police units to target “hot spots” such as retail stores and restaurants.

Spado didn’t respond directly to the funding, saying he didn’t have enough details, but did say their queue can be anywhere from 50-300 calls deep.

“I know that we’ve added resources on certain evenings when the queue gets to be too large, Thursdays through Saturdays, particularly in the summer. Then we’re paying in overtime for those units to try to assist with the queue management and wait times.”

Kking@postmedia.com

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