Column: Empty cop talk

Column: Empty cop talk
Date: Oct 21, 2006 11:16 AM
PUBLICATION: The Winnipeg Sun
DATE: 2006.10.21
EDITION: Final
SECTION: News
PAGE: 5
BYLINE: TOM BRODBECK
WORD COUNT: 402

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Empty cop talk
Politicos' vows to increase police force unfulfilled

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For all the tough talk by local politicians in recent years about
putting more police officers on the street, we sure don't have that many
more cops today than we did in the late 1990s.

Despite the growth in organized crime, an increase in street violence
and a burgeoning illegal gun and drug trade, the Winnipeg police's
authorized complement has grown by only 95 cops since 1998, according to
the service's own annual reports.

I don't know how many government announcements I've seen from mayors,
justice ministers and premiers over the past eight years vowing to boost
the ranks of Winnipeg's finest.

But when you look at the numbers over time, they haven't grown much.

In 1998, the police's authorized complement was 1,206 officers.

As of Sept. 30, 2006, that complement has grown to only 1,301.

That's only what is "authorized." It doesn't mean there are 1,301
cops.
The actual number, according to police statistics, is 1,268.

Despite all the rhetoric about putting more cops on the street to combat
crime, there's very little evidence of it. In fact, per capita, the
number of cops in the city has dropped.

WRONG WAY

In 1998, there was one cop for every 519 people in Winnipeg. In 2005,
there was one cop for every 539 people. So we're going the wrong way.

What it shows is that politicians like to make a lot of proclamations
about getting tough on crime and deploying more cops to fight the bad
guys.

But their commitment to it is pretty soft.

Which is why today we're seeing a lot of stories about police shortages
and longer response times to calls.

When we've got fewer cops per capita today than we did eight years ago
-- and when cops are dealing with far more complex types of cases than
ever before, including Internet crimes -- it's eventually going to show
up on the front lines.

Politicians can make all the smoke-and-mirrors announcements they want
-- like Operation Clean Sweep, announced last year after a gang-related
shooting on a West End street. It doesn't change the fact that our
police force is understaffed.

Operation Clean Sweep -- a political response to a high-profile event
that just moved officers from one part of the city to another -- is not
new, by the way. Police used the same name to describe a two-day "sweep"
of crime in the core area in 1998. They just regurgitated the package
name.

If Mayor Sam Katz, city council and the provincial government were truly
serious about putting more cops on the street, they would increase the
complement by about 300 over the next five years.

It would cost money -- probably about $20 million a year. (Although a
substantial increase in the police complement would partly pay for
itself because it would dramatically reduce the cops' skyrocketing
overtime costs).

But that's what it would take if you wanted more cruiser cars on the
road every day, more cops walking the beat and more investigators trying
to crack organized crime rings.

All this would take real political leadership, though.

Not the kind of lip service we've seen from our elected officials on
policing in recent years.




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