Katz promises more police on Winnipeg streets

September 07, 2010

Winnipeg - Sam Katz is promising to add 77 positions to the Winnipeg Police Service if voters give him another term in the mayor's office.

Katz made the announcement at Central Park in front of reporters and the Winnipeg Police Association executive, who've thrown their support behind the incumbent mayor and publicly endorsed him Tuesday.

Katz said the additional positions, including 58 new police officers, would cost $5 million.

He said the money would be found when the city drafts its budget and come from the federal government, which recently committed money for policing, Katz said.
Twenty officers would combat gangs in a unit modelled after the Winnipeg Auto Theft Suppression Strategy, which targets the city's worst underage car thieves.
The province has already implemented a similar program called GRASP, which monitors known gang members who are serving a sentence in the community to make sure they are abiding by court-ordered conditions.

Katz said the police service would decide whether the new officers would be absorbed into GRASP or work alongside the unit.
Twenty officers would do foot patrols to increase the service's presence in high-crime areas, while 18 would represent a new shift of cruiser cars to put more cops on the street to improve response times.

Nineteen civilian positions would be created for the 911 call centre, Katz said.

Katz said Winnipeg's call centre doesn't meet Canadian standards for staffing and call response times.
WPA president Mike Sutherland said the union, which represents front-line officers and civilian staff, endorsed Katz given his "track record" regarding crime-fighting and prevention initiatives as mayor.

Sutherland said the union's executive met with fellow mayoral candidate Judy Wasylycia-Leis to hear her crime pitch.
Wasylycia-Leis has publicly unveiled part of her crime platform. She hasn't announced any police staffing commitments.
Katz said he will make more crime-related announcements soon.

Voters go to the polls Oct. 27 to elect a mayor and councillors.

Source:  Chris Kitching, Winnipeg Su