Police fire back at 'disrespectful' Winnipeg councillor
Winnipeg's deputy police chief Art Stannard re-loaded and fired more shots at a city councillor he claims doesn't know the role of the police service.
Stannard on Friday told the city's police board he didn't want to get into a mud-slinging battle with Coun. Marty Morantz, but then launched into one.
He accused Morantz of being 'disrespectful' and of causing 'fear' by suggesting the police service might be bloated with too many officers.
"I don't want you to compromise service but it looks like there are alot of officers hanging around right now," Morantz said at Thursday's meeting. That was the line that perhaps more than any other frustrated Stannard.
"We don't have officers standing around doing nothing", he said on Friday, adding the Winnipeg Police Service is not out of control with its spending. "It's clearly obvious some people don't know the role of police."
Stannard and Morantz, chair of the city's finance committee, went head-to-head Thursday during a tense meeting between city and police executives.
Morantz wanted specific budget information from the police, saying the WPS makes up the largest portion of the city's overall spending.
Stannard told Morantz on Thursday the WPS answers to the recently-formed police board, not the city's finance committee — or at least not in a public meeting.
"Yesterday was not a very good day for the police," Stannard told Friday's police board meeting, adding that after Morantz's grilling the day before, members of public and police service approached him with concerns that changes could be coming to staffing levels.
"This is not the time to lay off police officers," he stressed to the police board.
Instead, the police service has reduced an upcoming recruitment class by 25 positions, Stannard noted.
It appears most of the members of the police board agreed with Stannard and supported him at the meeting, reported CBC's Sean Kavanagh.