Time to consider more officers: Police board chair

The head of the Winnipeg Police Board says it’s time to explore whether Winnipeg needs more police officers.

The Winnipeg Police Service expects to exceed its overtime budget by $2.3 million by the end of this year, with a projected increase to $11.9 million from $9.5 million, according to a new financial update based on data up to the end of June.

Coun. Markus Chambers (St. Norbert-Seine River) said the numbers reflect growing demands on police officers, so it’s time to consider if Winnipeg needs to hire more of them.

“At a police level, you have to look at (if we need to) start adding more officers to the complement to reduce the amount of overtime,” said Chambers, who is chair of the police board.

The councillor said Winnipeg has grown in population and land area in recent years, so more officers may be needed to answer calls across the whole city.

“We should consider it. We should look at similar cities, in terms of population size and … complement size that provides that service,” said Chambers.

Winnipeg’s population increased from 695,436 in 2013 to 815,599 in 2023, according to the Environment for Policing in Winnipeg 2024 report. The report notes the number of calls for service to the WPS communications centre reached 783,248 in 2023, up 9.8 per cent from the previous year.

A 2023 WPS statistical report states the service had 1,366 police officers in 2023, down from 1,463 in 2013.

Chambers said “public order events” (i.e. protests) are happening often and require significant police hours, as do special initiatives.

The finance update notes $1 million of overtime is linked to an initiative to curb retail and violent crime. That project relies on officer overtime and will be funded by the provincial government.

The report notes several other pressures are also increasing overtime hours.

“Overtime is impacted by volumes of homicides, major critical incidents, traffic fatalities and the overall increase in violent crime coupled with the complexity of investigations. (This) overtime trend will continue as additional general patrol cars are regularly being added to address (a) high volume of calls for service,” it states.

Chambers stressed the current use of overtime shouldn’t become a long-term strategy.

“(It’s) not (sustainable) from a cost perspective, nor from a mental health perspective for the officers … It does have an impact on their mental health, it does have an impact on their work-life balance and we’ve got to be mindful of that,” he said.

Overall, police expect to end the year with a $4.3-million operating budget shortfall, largely because WPS doesn’t expect to meet a council-imposed target to save $7 million by the end of this year.

The president of the Winnipeg Police Association said police resources must reflect the demand for its services.

“When you don’t approve a realistic budget, then you get these kind of overtime figures,” said Cory Wiles. “Certainly, the effects of these demands are being felt by our members.”

Brianna Solberg, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business provincial director for Manitoba, spoke in support of hiring more officers.

“It does have an impact on their mental health, it does have an impact on their work-life balance and we’ve got to be mindful of that.”–Markus Chambers

In a recent survey, the organization found more than 60 per cent of respondents felt crime has increased in the province over the last year. Of those, 83 per cent said they may choose not to report crimes to police because they feel it will not make a difference.

“Our members in retail and in hospitality are the ones kind of on the front lines of this … Having mental health and addiction supports is also going to be necessary, but in the meantime, I think hiring more officers to get more boots on the ground and increase police presence will help, hopefully, create a perception of safety,” Solberg said.

The Retail Council of Canada would also support new police hires.

“We feel increasingly confident that both the government of Manitoba and Winnipeg police are taking retail crime and safety seriously,” said John Graham, the council’s director of government relations for the Prairies.

“In the past, we’ve felt like we’ve been trying to draw attention to (crimes) that were considered petty incidents. Now, there’s a reality that these are complex issues that often are violent.”

“Police are a response to crime, they are not the solution to crime.”–Kate Kehler

By contrast, a local anti-poverty advocate says hiring more police is not the answer.

“You’re spending more money on policing, rather than on what will actually reduce crime. Police are a response to crime, they are not the solution to crime,” said Kate Kehler, executive director of the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg.

Kehler believes social agency staff are better trained to respond to encampments and well-being calls than police. She said shifting that work from officers to community organizations would offer a better way to reduce demands on police time.

Kehler also urged the city to focus its resources on addressing root causes of crime.

“What we need is actually to be spending money … eradicating poverty, because then we will actually reduce crime,” she said.

— with files from Tyler Searle

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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Joyanne Pursaga
Reporter

Joyanne is city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. A reporter since 2004, she began covering politics exclusively in 2012, writing on city hall and the Manitoba Legislature for the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in early 2020. Read more about Joyanne.

Every piece of reporting Joyanne produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.

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