Four-month-old project targeting troubled youth cut violent crime, police say By: Joyanne Pursaga Posted: 11:11 AM CDT Friday, Jun. 7, 2024 Last Modified: 12:14 PM CDT Friday, Jun. 7, 2024 Updates

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The Winnipeg Police Service says a new project has triggered a sharp decrease in arrests among specific youths who were repeatedly involved in violent crime.

The ongoing Project Surge will attempt to secure social supports to set them on a different path.

The effort, which began March 7, was a response to an escalation in random acts of violence committed by young offenders.

“The results of the project are significant,” WPS Supt. Dave Dalal told a Winnipeg Police Board meeting Friday. “Our focused attention has resulted in a 50 per cent decrease in these youth being involved in violent crime since we started.”

Much of the escalation in violent acts were tied to retail thefts and muggings, police said.

The investigation identified 117 youths involved in 1,795 police incidents — either as accused or victims — since January 2023, including homicides, weapons offences, serious assaults and missing persons cases.

Of the 1,795 incidents, 519 occurred after Project Surge started in March.

Dalal said there have been 435 arrests among the 117 youths since January 2023, including 150 since Project Surge launched.

He told media data related to the youths is shared among officers to help monitor risks, check on bail release conditions and help police collaborate with social agencies to connect with needed supports.

“We’re certainly giving group-home staff strategies on how to deal with youth that are misbehaving or may be not observing house rules or running anyway…. But in the long term, we need government to look at the conditions of each individual youth (who is) choosing to be out there with others committing crime and give them wraparound supports that get them off the path that they’re on,” said Dalal.

The project used data and analytics to identify youths who demonstrated a high risk to commit violent acts or become victims.

“Many of these youths were immersed in high-risk lifestyles, including previous traumatic backgrounds and real-time social and familial constraints requiring social supports that go beyond the justice system,” a WPS release states.

Dalal said it became apparent that many of the crimes were being committed by the same suspects, and that many of the youths came from very troubled backgrounds, including being victims of sexual abuse and involvement with social services agencies.

He estimated about 30 of the youths were linked to the most harm and violence, a more limited number that should allow social supports to be tailored to that specific group.

“There’s 30 kids we need to focus on to make a significant impact on youth crime within the community and get them on the right path because they need supports,” he said.

“They are victimized over and over again themselves.”

He said some of the youths have been referred for cultural supports and gang turnaround programs, while more work is needed with governments and other agencies to determine how best to help others.

Several high-profile incidents involving underage suspects took place last year, raising calls for a greater focus on youth crime.

In March, WPS Chief Danny Smyth publicly criticized the child-welfare system after a string of violent attacks police said involved youth in provincial care.

At the time, Smyth said a group of young suspects living in group or foster homes were relying on caregivers who lacked the resources to meet their needs, leaving the kids to “go anywhere and do anything that they see fit.”

The chief noted multiple violent attacks had occurred within the previous week, including one involving a 13-year-old boy accused of injuring a woman with a machete while she was waiting at a St. Vital bus stop. Police said that suspect was also linked to a gunpoint robbery of a 12-year-old boy at Main Street and Rupertsland Avenue a few days later.

Smyth also noted the risk extended to vulnerable teens in care becoming victims of violence, including a shocking incident in which 14-year-old girl who left her care placement was fatally stabbed on Graham Avenue on Dec. 15, allegedly by a 17-year-old boy.

Mitch Bourbonniere, a Winnipeg social worker who has decades of experience working with at-risk youth, said Friday he had not yet heard of the initiative, but said any effort to connect kids to supports is always positive.

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“It can’t hurt,” he said. “If the young people that need the help can find their way to proper supports, I’m all for it… if the police want to try to help with that, great.”

However, he said, he does have some concern about whether at-risk youth would be willing to take part in initiatives when police are involved.

“The only thing I’d wonder about is if the youth aren’t mandated, are they going to take the advice of police, to steer themselves toward those resources?” Bourbonniere said.

— with files from Erik Pindera

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

X: @joyanne_pursaga

Joyanne Pursaga
Reporter

Joyanne is city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. A reporter since 2004, she began covering politics exclusively in 2012, writing on city hall and the Manitoba Legislature for the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in early 2020. Read more about Joyanne.

Every piece of reporting Joyanne 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.