Katz pledges more cops

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This article was published 08/09/2010 (5750 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SAM Katz says crime is the city’s biggest worry and he’s promising 58 new police of­ficers to combat gangs and walk the beat.

Twenty new officers will be assigned to an anti­gang unit modeled on the successful auto-theft strategy. Another 20 will do foot patrols in high­crime neighbourhoods and 18 more will man a new cruiser car to boost response times.

“Winnipeggers have made their priorities known and public safety is priority one,” said Katz. “This election is about reducing crime, of­fering young people alternatives and taking back our communities.”

The pledge snagged Katz an endorsement from the Winnipeg Police Association, which hasn’t backed a mayoral candidate since the mid-1990s and sent its executive to Central Park Tuesday morning for Katz’s announcement.

Already, during Katz’s six years in the mayor’s office, the city has hired 200 more cops — a 17 per cent increase. But Winnipeg’s overall crime rate has remained relatively stable, according to local criminologists. In July, a Statistics Canada report pegged the city’s violent crime rate the third highest in the country, a rate that increased 15 per cent between 2008 and 2009.

Katz’s main challenger, former NDP MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis, agreed more police officers are needed. “But adding more police is not the whole answer,” she said. “Without a plan and a focus on the causes of the crime, adding all the police in the world will never stop this cycle of violence.”

She said Katz has lacked a comprehensive crime-reduction plan and has instead resorted to Band-Aid solutions. She said she plans to unveil her comprehensive plan later in the campaign.

The new officers will cost $4 million — a sub­stantial amount when the city is counting on win­ning a $10-million lawsuit against Manitoba Hy­dro to balance its books this year.

Katz said there are “many avenues” within the city budget to find $4 million without cutting other services, but he would not specify. He said some federal funding could be available.

Meanwhile, the province is working through a pledge to give Winnipeg 50 more officers. Winni­peg Police Chief Keith McCaskill said 33 have ar­rived and another 17 are due, presumably before the provincial election in the fall of 2011.

McCaskill said Katz’s vow of 58 new officers is very welcome, and said he’s talked to the mayor in the past about a dedicated gang unit able to keep tabs on known gang members. But, McCa­skill acknowledged that he has never asked Katz for another 20 beat cops or another cruiser car.

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca