Winnipeg police service needs 78 more officers, acting police chief says

Winnipeg's acting police chief says the service needs dozens more officers to meet the skyrocketing number of calls for help.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting of the Winnipeg police board on Friday, acting Chief Art Stannard said ideally, he would like to see the number of police officers expand by 78, in addition to the 24 new officers already slated to join the downtown foot patrol. 

On Aug. 31, the service had 440 calls waiting for a response — a new daily record, Stannard told the board.

"We're averaging around 300 calls a day waiting to be dispatched," he said.

"It's an alarming number of calls and we're trying to get it stabilized by bringing people in on overtime and to help with the lower-grade calls, so we can get those out of the queue."

A report presented to the police board this week showed overtime costs are projected to hit $11.8 million by the end of 2024, up from $7.7 million in 2023 — a 53 per cent increase.

Violent crime and frequent street demonstrations are some of the issues straining police resources, and draining officers.

"Where do you start? They're overwhelmed," Stannard said. "It bothers them as well. They want to make a difference out there, [but] it's really hard to stop and talk to community to do proactive work when you have 440 calls."

Last year, police responded to 299 protests and demonstrations. So far this year, there have been 415.

"We're diverting our community support unit officers every single day to these events," Winnipeg police Supt. Dave Dalal told reporters.

According to the service's environment for policing report, also presented to the board Friday, Winnipeg's population increased from 695,436 in 2013 to 815,599 in 2023.

Over the same 10-year period, the number of police officers decreased from 1,463 to 1,366, according to the service's statistical report for 2023.

The police service has not made a formal request for more officers.

Police board chair Markus Chambers said it's time to have a conversation about adding more police officers, noting that Winnipeg has a growing population that's also spreading further out.

"It's an opportunity to have that discussion with the next chief," Chambers, the councillor for St. Norbert-Seine River, told reporters.

"We also have to look at, what are the other programs that are out there? Community safety involves a lot in terms of crime prevention, law enforcement. So we're looking at the partnerships that need to be created as well in terms of making our community safety safer."

The police service expects to hire a new chief by November, to replace former chief Danny Smyth, who retired earlier this month. 

Digital evidence collection program expanded

The board also heard Friday that the police service is expanding a digital evidence collection program meant to save officers time. 

The program, called the connected officer program, allows police to take audio and video statements out in the field, rather than taking written statements —a process that can take on average 30 minutes or more per statement, said Deputy Chief Gene Bowers.

"Getting that … first instance statements from victims and witnesses of crime, we're able to get that really clear understanding of what had occurred in an incident," Bowers told reporters.

The program launched as a pilot in 2021, and expanded to all of the downtown patrol officers the following year. 

Now the service is making it available to officers working out of the East District station.

Bowers expects to roll out the program to all officers by early next year.

The cost of the full program is expected to be about $600,000.