War protests drive up Winnipeg police OT cost

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This article was published 08/12/2023 (977 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Frequent protests over the war in the Gaza Strip have forced the Winnipeg Police Service to spend more than $136,000 on overtime and divert officers from downtown safety patrols, creating a major strain on police resources, the Winnipeg Police Board heard Friday.

Police Supt. Dave Dalal told the board 37 events related to the violence in Gaza took place in Winnipeg from Oct. 9 to Dec. 5; 25 of them triggered a police response.

Dalal said the police helicopter has been used at times, with a total of 2,288 police hours devoted to the response so far. He said overtime costs are “still climbing.” Officers have also been diverted from less urgent responses to citizen crime reports and proactive work at crime hot spots, he said.

“This has been a pace that is very hard to maintain for us. We’ve seen almost daily events where we needed to assign police resources,” he said, during Friday’s Winnipeg Police Board meeting.

WPS repeated its request for community members to refrain from counter and mobile protests, due to increased risk for protesters and police, as well as higher resource demands from those types of demonstrations. Counter protests have largely been avoided since, though mobile protests continued, he said.

“Sometimes (these happen) in unpredictable fashion, such that we have to have extra resources in order to be able to shut down traffic, not knowing where the crowd is going,” said Dalal.

For example, closing Portage Avenue and Main Street to traffic requires “more than a dozen” police units, he said.

Dalal also noted that a recent holiday open house at the Manitoba legislature required a police presence to cope with the risk of a disruptive protest at that site.

The service was questioned about its decision to make specific requests related to how a protest is conducted.

“I appreciate all the strain that it causes… I just think (people) should be allowed to protest as they see fit, as long as it’s done without causing harm to property and individuals,” said police board member Kyle Mason.

After the meeting, Dalal told reporters the conflict in the Middle East has triggered passionate responses from many community members who’ve seen loved ones hurt or killed overseas, which is raising the risk of the gatherings becoming more volatile than other protests.

It has also raised the need for police to make such requests, he said.

“I would say it’s our responsibility to provide a safe community. If we can influence folks to express themselves in a way that doesn’t impact community safety, then I think it’s our responsibility to do so,” he said.

Dalal said the period during which the protests have taken place has extended well past the norm, as demonstrations linked to the Gaza war are entering a third month.

Coun. Markus Chambers, chairman of the police board, said he is concerned about the strain protests are having on police resources, especially since world events have triggered more demonstrations in recent years.

“We’re living in times right now where people are exercising their rights to protest and we’re seeing that’s having a catastrophic effect on police resources and general security in our city… Individuals are protesting and counter protesting and needing a police line down the middle to keep those parties apart,” said Chambers.

The dozens of local demonstrations began after war broke out between Israel and Hamas following an Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian militant group.

Since the conflict started, more than 17,000 people have been killed, the Associated Press has reported.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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