The future of a provincially funded crime-reduction campaign is unclear as retail theft remains a hot topic in Winnipeg after an inner-city 7-Eleven was robbed six times on Saturday.
Manitoba Justice Minister Matt Wiebe said there would be an announcement Thursday when asked if the province will extend funding for the Winnipeg Police Service to patrol crime hot spots in the city.
“We might have some more things to say then,” Wiebe said Tuesday.
The Manitoba government launched a pilot program in June, paying for police overtime to focus on retail and violent crime in the Exchange District, Osborne Village and the West End.
Community support officers head out on foot to boost visibility and visit stores, the property crime unit conducts covert operations and targets prolific thieves, and the community relations unit works with retailers on crime-prevention measures.
The use of foot patrols has allowed police to respond quicker to reports of shoplifting and encouraged retailers to report incidents, police said.
The campaign saw a significant decrease in property crime in July and was extended to the end of August at a cost of $1 million.
The problem has not disappeared, however. Winnipeg police confirmed the 7-Eleven at Arlington Street and Notre Dame Avenue in the West End was robbed six times on Saturday.
“The incidents occurred at different times of the day and involved different suspects,” a WPS media relations person said in an email. No one was injured, no arrests have been made and the investigations are continuing, she said.
The same store robbed multiple times in a day isn’t a rare occurrence, she said.
“Anecdotally, receiving multiple, daily theft-related reports from retail stores in various parts of the city is not unusual. It is also common for criminals to reattend the same location to carry out these thefts.”
carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter
Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.
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