Violent crime, vehicle pursuits are up: police chief

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/05/2017 (3107 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Violent crime is up, and so are the number of police vehicle pursuits, two trends Winnipeg Police Service chief Danny Smyth said he can’t explain.

Smyth told the police board Friday violent crime has been on the rise over the past year, in Winnipeg and across western Canada.

“The alarming trend for me is personal robberies or what we often call strong-arm robberies,” Smyth said. “We saw a dramatic increase in that.”

Smyth said the incident of violent crime has steadily increased for the first three months of the year compared with the same period in 2016. January saw a three per cent increase, February a four per cent spike and March a six per cent increase.

“It had been falling down for the better part of five years, and last year we saw a bit of an uptick, and this year we’re seeing an uptick again,” Smyth told reporters. “It’s something that we’re monitoring.”

The target of the robberies appears to be mostly young people with expensive personal electronic devices and accessories — smartphones, headphones and ear buds.

“When I’m out and about in the community, I see a lot of people who are zoned out with their hand-held devices and their headphones,” Smyth said. “It makes people unaware of what’s going on around them and can make them vulnerable.”

In response to the climbing numbers, Smyth said the WPS has made a video focusing on creating awareness and crime prevention that is being made available to schools to post on their websites. The video can also be seen on the WPS website and its YouTube channel, WpgPoliceService.

In addition to an increase in violent crimes, Smyth said the WPS has been seeing a steady increase in the number of vehicle pursuits for the past few years.

“I’m not a fan of vehicle pursuits,” Smyth said. “They’re dangerous for our members, dangerous for the public. I don’t like to see an increase. I’m trying to get a sense of what’s going on there.”

Smyth said that, 10 years ago, pursuits involved mostly kids stealing vehicles for the excitement, but now most of the pursuits involve suspects involved in other crimes, such as break-ins or robberies using stolen vehicles for their getaways.

“It’s a very different dynamic than what we had in 2005. Primarily young kids had figured out how to steal cars, and they really weren’t involved in any other crime,” Smyth said.

“This is different.”

Advances in technology have made it difficult to bypass a vehicle’s ignition system, Smyth said, but vehicle owners are sometimes making it easier for thieves by either leaving their vehicles running, or with keyless ignitions, leaving their fobs in the vehicle.

“If they can steal a car and use it,” in another crime, “that’s the difference in this trend,” Smyth said. “That’s a very different dynamic than 10 years ago.”

Smyth’s monthly report to the board also revealed the number of tickets issued through photo radar and red-light cameras is increasing.

The number of tickets issued for reduced school zone violations is up 18 per cent, tickets for speeding through an intersection up 13 per cent, and red-light violations are up 28 per cent.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca

WPS+Dashboard+April+2017+Report