Winnipeg police to beef up security, weaponry in wake of weekend tragedies

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This article was published 02/10/2017 (2985 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg police will be installing more barricades at large events to protect crowds against drivers who use vehicles as weapons, in response to a dramatic downtown attack in Edmonton Saturday night.

“We expect to introduce some new products probably this year,” Winnipeg police Deputy Chief Gord Perrier said.

One of those will be mobile barricades that can be put up for special events and later removed. Event organizers may also look at permanent infrastructure changes, he said.

On Saturday night, a police officer conducting crowd control outside Commonwealth Stadium was sent flying after a man crashed through a barricade and slammed his vehicle into the police cruiser. The attacker then stabbed the police before fleeing. Later that night, the attacker, in a different vehicle, deliberately drove into pedestrians, injuring four. A Somali refugee faces charges of attempted murder, participating in a terrorist activity and dangerous driving.

Meanwhile, Perrier said more high-powered carbine rifles are also being deployed by Winnipeg police in the event of an active shooting occurring, such as the massacre in Las Vegas Sunday night. A lone gunman opened fire on an outdoor concert, killing at least 58 people and wounding about 400.

“Large-scale active shooter events, or bombings, are occurring more frequently in the Western world,” Perrier said. “I think there’s going to be a lot more emphasis on (security at) public events by everybody involved.”

But he stressed police must assess risk at any event otherwise it could be just wasting resources. “We spend a lot of time assessing threat levels, and what is an appropriate response,” he said.

Police departments and other agencies involved in mass criminal events share information more than ever. After last year’s mass shooting that killed 49 people in a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., Winnipeg police met with police and health officials from that city.

It was “to go through what happened, what went well, what didn’t go well, and what learning opportunities can we take from that,” he said.

Perrier said there is also more information exchange between police and health agencies in this effort. However, he was cautious about how much information to divulge. “People perpetrating these acts do their research, as well,” he said.

Perrier passed along the police service’s sympathies to people of Edmonton and Las Vegas coping with tragic events on the weekend.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca