City’s crime rate dropped in 2024, but police chief says it can’t be called a victory By: Chris Kitching Posted: 9:43 AM CDT Wednesday, May. 7, 2025 Last Modified: 6:19 PM CDT Wednesday, May. 7, 2025 Updates

Winnipeg’s violent crime severity index had its first “meaningful” drop in more than a decade, in 2024, while a surge in shoplifting reflected increased enforcement, a new police annual report showed Wednesday.

The index — a measurement that considers the volume and seriousness of crimes, and average court sentences — was 203.7, a decline of five per cent from a peak of 214.4 in 2023, the Winnipeg Police Service said.

• Read the full report (PDF, 22MB)

Winnipeg’s index was among the highest in Canada and higher than the national index of 99.5 in 2023, the latest Statistics Canada data show.

“(A safer city) is our No. 1 priority, and we don’t accept being the most violent city in Canada,” said police Chief Gene Bowers, who was sworn in March 17. “By no means is this like a victory, but it’s trending in the right direction.”

The WPS said the total number of reported crimes (70,149) dropped for the second year in a row. It was a slight decrease of 0.8 per cent from 2023, but 5.2 per cent higher than the five-year average, which includes COVID-19 pandemic years.

“It’s encouraging to see the crime rate trending down for two straight years, but we know that there’s still too much crime in Winnipeg, and there’s more work to do,” Mayor Scott Gillingham said.

About 30 per cent of all reported crimes were “cleared” — resulting in a charge, diversion or a victim not pursuing a matter, for example — which increased by about two per cent from 2023.

Overall reports of violent crime (14,998) decreased slightly (-1.4 per cent) for the first time in four years. The total was almost 21 per cent higher than the five-year average.

WPS data analyst David Bowman said there were declines in major categories such as homicides, assaults, robberies and sexual assaults.

Assaults against police and other peace officers reached a recent historic high, averaging more than one per day.

Bowman said 18 per cent of violent crimes that were cleared by a charge involved a suspect who was accused of violating bail, probation or other court-ordered conditions. The peak was 21 per cent in 2020.

Youth crimes increased by five per cent.

Total crime volume and severity have so far continued to trend downward in 2025.

“While a busy summer lies ahead, these early trends are encouraging,” Bowman said at a news conference.

Property crime (48,045 reports) decreased in 2024 for the second consecutive year to hit pre-pandemic levels. The decline from 2023 was 2.3 per cent, despite reports of shoplifting soaring by 40.8 per cent to exceed pre-pandemic totals.

Police attributed the spike in shoplifting data to new anti-retail theft enforcement campaigns that led to almost 1,000 arrests in seven months, and encouraged retailers to report all incidents, which some store operators rarely did.

“We expected to see a spike, and we did. The hope is that you’ll see that spike and then, when those resources are scaled back, you’ll see that trend down because we had an impact,” said Cam Mackid, the deputy chief of investigations.

The upward trend has levelled off considerably so far in 2025, Bowman said.

Of Winnipeg’s four districts, the west district recorded the biggest increase (8.2 per cent) in crime reports. Police attributed that to population growth.

Central district, which includes downtown, had a decrease of nearly 10 per cent. Bowers said a strategy that includes governments and community and Indigenous organizations helped curb crime.

The Manitoba government provided funding for 36 officers. All will be assigned to foot patrols in areas such as downtown.

The province last year touted the officers as a way to make an anti-shoplifting initiative permanent. The WPS, which decides how officers are deployed, didn’t say the initiative would become permanent.

“I wouldn’t say there’s a specific retail theft initiative that is ongoing, but we’re still doing that work every single day with our on-duty resources, and I’m sure it would be supplemented if we see the need arise,” Mackid said.

Reports of gun crimes climbed by 2.3 per cent.

Crimes involving bear spray were down 29.4 per cent compared with 2023. Last year was the first full year under new restrictions on bear-spray sales, which were introduced by the former Tory government.

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Knife crimes fell by 14.3 per cent year-over-year. Justice Minister Matt Wiebe said he believes consultations, held before the NDP government’s restrictions on machete sales took effect Dec. 31, contributed to the reduction.

Progressive Conservative justice critic Wayne Balcaen said it’s “laughable” that Wiebe tried to take credit for the decrease in knife crime.

The report did not provide a breakdown of knife offences by type of blade, such as kitchen knives or machetes.

Balcaen said he doesn’t think the “very slight decrease” in violent crime will make people feel safer downtown, taking a bus or waiting in an emergency room in Winnipeg.

Police attributed a 31 per cent rise in impaired driving-related offences to increased enforcement.

Scot Halley, deputy chief of operations, said almost 50 per cent of impaired drivers who were tested had cannabis in their system.

“That was a shocking result for us,” he said.

The WPS said 44 hate-motivated incidents were reported, down from 46 in 2023. Most were mischief incidents targeting the Jewish community, Bowman said.

Last year, police said there was a rise in antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents amid the ongoing Israel-Gaza war.

Cyber crimes have more than tripled since 2018, with the WPS receiving 1,611 reports in 2024. The majority were fraud-related.

Police were concerned about an increase in sextortion, where victims — often teenagers — are manipulated into sharing an intimate photo or video with a person, usually pretending to be someone else, who then threatens to expose the material unless the victim sends money or more images.

The most frequently reported age of victims of violent cyber crimes, such as sextortion, was just 15, Bowman said.

Demand for police remained high. The WPS communications centre received 772,452 calls, an average of more than 2,000 per day. It was 1.4 per cent lower than 2023, but 12.6 per cent higher than the five-year average.

The most common type of call from citizens was well-being checks (21,254) for the fifth year in a row, followed by domestic incidents (17.948) and disturbances (12,729).

Police said there remains a significant strain on front-line officers.

The city had a rate of 164.8 officers per 100,000 residents in 2024, down from 167.4 in 2023 and 210.4 in 2013, the statistical report said.

The service had an overall complement of 1,390 officers.

Last fall, then-acting chief Art Stannard, now the deputy chief of support services, said the service needed 78 more officers to meet demand and help improve response times.

The city is funding 36 additional officers in 2025 and 2026 to help bring the current minimum requirement of 28 two-officer cruiser cars per shift to 30. Stannard said the service needs another 36 officers to help meet demand.

“I don’t think we’re finished. I think we still need two more cars,” he said.

— with files from Maggie Macintosh

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Chris Kitching
Reporter

Chris Kitching is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He began his newspaper career in 2001, with stops in Winnipeg, Toronto and London, England, along the way. After returning to Winnipeg, he joined the Free Press in 2021, and now covers a little bit of everything for the newspaper. Read more about Chris.

Every piece of reporting Chris produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.