The provincial government is considering extending the retail theft initiative again.
Premier Wab Kinew said Friday morning that the government will assess whether funding for the program can be extended once 12 provincially funded police officers begin their duties next month.
Mayor Scott Gillingham, speaking to journalists at the Retail Council of Canada’s Manitoba Retail Secure Summit, called on the province to extend the project.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES
Foot patrol officers Stephen Desrochers (from left), John Middleton and Todd Martens — all part of the Winnipeg Police Service’s retail theft initiative — walk through Old Market Square in the Exchange District in July.
The province announced Aug. 29 that the initiative, launched to curb retail and violent crime and scheduled to end that month, was being extended through October. Kinew announced $774,000 in additional funding at that time.
In early June, the province provided $378,000 to fund four weeks of Winnipeg Police Service patrols, in which officers work overtime to target retail crime hot spots in the Exchange District, Osborne Village and the West End.
The program was hailed a success and extended by the province to the end of August, with another $1 million for police OT.
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