Downtown safety, petty crime top of mind for Winnipeggers, new poll suggests

September 3, 2024 Canuck

Winnipeg’s chief of police is set to retire from the force, and a new poll suggests some Winnipeggers want the incoming top cop to focus efforts on downtown safety and petty crime.

Safety and theft are growing concerns for Kishan Zalawadia, owner of Family Foods Downtown. Shoplifting is a daily occurrence, he said.

“It’s never the same for every day, but if you pick an average, it could be around like $50 to $100 [per day].”

A CBC Manitoba/Probe poll surveyed 480 Winnipeggers from the research firm’s panel. It found many of those residents want the new chief to prioritize downtown safety and reduce petty crime and property crime.

More than one in four Winnipeggers surveyed (27 per cent) say improving downtown safety should be the top priority for the new chief, and 70 per cent rank downtown safety as one of their top three priorities.

Zalawadia has only owned Family Foods for a couple months, but said his tenured staff believe shoplifting is getting worse. Zalawadia hasn’t called the police yet, but he’s not sure if it’s worth it.

“I don’t want to call the cops for $5, $10, but those $5, $10 are being stolen every hour, so I don’t know what I shall call them for? Shall I call them for $50 or shall I call them for $10 every hour?”

Zalawadia wants to see more police patrols in the downtown area.

Family Foods owner, Kishan Zalawadia scanning produce in his store. — Family Foods owner Kishan Zalawadia scans produce in his store. (Prabhjot Lotey/CBC)

Chief Danny Smyth declined to comment and Winnipeg police said the service is waiting for the announcement of a new chief before commenting further.

In the Probe Research poll, 60 per cent of Winnipeggers surveyed feel petty and property crime is a top three priority for Smyth’s successor, and 24 per cent ranked it as their main concern. Racialized Winnipeggers and older Winnipeggers who responded placed a higher priority on petty and property crime.

Since the results of the online survey did not come from a random probability-based sample, a margin of error cannot be calculated. For comparison purposes, a similar probabilistic survey would have a margin of error of plus or minus 4.47 percentage points 19 times out 20, according to the survey. The margin of error would be higher within each of the survey’s population sub-groups.

Problem extends outside downtown

Downtown residents aren’t the only ones saying there’s a rise in theft and petty crime.

In the Fort Richmond area, Mohamed Goulaid has seen multiple car break-ins and thefts near his home. Recently he woke up in the middle of the night and caught someone breaking into multiple cars outside his window.

“I was like hey, let me try to pull out my phone, catch him in the act, see what he’s going to do,” Goulaid said.

“I said, ‘Hey, what’s going on bro?’ He kind of looked at me, and we kind of made that eye contact, and he knew I caught him doing what he was doing.”

Mohamed Goulaid in the parking lot where he caught someone breaking into cars — Mohamed Goulaid caught someone breaking into cars outside his home, in this parking lot. (Kevin Nepitabo/CBC)

Goulaid’s video shows him chasing the would-be car thief out of the parking lot. He called police and they directed him to the non-emergency line.

“I feel as though there should be more security at least, maybe police patrol around the area, just kind of driving around making sure these guys don’t do what they do.”

Foot patrol calls increase

The Downtown Community Safety Partnership, which was created by the provincial and municipal government, Winnipeg Police Service, Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Services, Downtown BIZ and True North Sports + Entertainment in 2020, does foot patrols downtown 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Matthew Sanscartier, director of informatics and research with the DCSP, said their call volume has increased significantly in the last four years.

“The first year we were in operations, we had about 500 calls. The second year, we had about 3,500. Last year, we had a touch over 9,000, and this year, we’re expecting anywhere from 11,000 to 12,000.”

Sanscartier believes part of the call volume increase is because Winnipegers are more aware of the DCSP, not necessarily because more incidents are occurring.

“It took a while to create a lot of the issues that we’ve seen in the past, and the ones that continue to persist. It’s going to take time to get out of them as well.”

Police foot patrols

In spring 2024, the province gave the Winnipeg Police Service a short term-funding boost to pay for foot patrol officers in areas of the city identified as retail theft hotspots. On Thursday, the province allocated additional funding to extend the program until October.

The additional patrols are being staffed through overtime from officers. The police service said 12 new officers are expected to graduate in November, and they’ll be added to the foot patrol beat as well.

Sherri Rollins, city councillor for Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry, one of the areas where officers are patrolling, said the patrols are improving safety and cutting down on theft.

“We need that model replicated elsewhere. That’s a community policing discussion, that’s an operational discussion that police need to have,” Rollins said.

“For sure, I mentioned that was a priority for the next police chief when I did the consultation with the [police] board.”

In addition to safety and crime prevention, a modest number of Winnipeggers who were polled said the new chief should work to improve relations with residents who are racialized, and strengthen relationships with community and social service groups. Of those polled, one in five ranked these two as a top priority for the next chief, with younger adults more likely to prioritize it.

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