Policing, paperwork and crime

In 1984 when I started policing, I thought it strange that the AM-FM radio that was standard equipment was removed from patrol cars.

I was told it was so officers wouldn’t be distracted from hearing anyone calling for help.

There was also no air conditioning, presumably to promote open windows and that same “alertness.”

So do the windows need to be rolled down again?

There are concerns the police are no longer hearing the public (When crime doesn’t get a police response, Free Press editorial, July 24).

One of the incidents to galvanize this debate was a Crescentwood-area break-in.

In my experience, however, and in fairness to the hard-working officers, timing matters.

Far too often units are tied up on other, often higher priority calls, and so cannot easily break away to take something else in progress.

Certainly most would if they could, and some will.

Timing just wasn’t propitious that day.

And when it came to following up the break-in, the vagaries of “fate” still apply, because that report may have landed on the desk of a conscientious, assiduous detective, but at the wrong time.

Maybe they got that report on that rare bad day, or when they were already overwhelmed with other investigations.

But it may have been assigned to someone less diligent, who lets others do the work.

Policing still happens in spite of them. It just means even more is done by less.

Regardless of individual work ethic, policing is increasingly becoming more “encumbered,” causing officers to be tied up more, and longer.

There are many more policies, procedures, and reports now then when I started in 1984, as compared to when I retired in 2020.

And when you continuously add to the workload, it gets heavier in terms of time.

How much of this is absolutely necessary is open to conjecture, depending on who is justifying what, and whose agenda/career needs to be catered to, or justified.

And usually they are neither the ones doing the work, or the victims.

But it means policing is less efficient/effective in terms of addressing crime.

When you overload the rescue boat, it slows, and inevitably sinks. We’re going to need a bigger boat? It too would eventually be swamped.

Policing is not unlike health services, where doctors spend increasingly more time doing paperwork, and less time focusing on medical care.

Early in my career, I went for a ride-along with Minneapolis police, and was amazed how quickly officers were back on the street after an arrest, unlike in Winnipeg.

And no, there were no civil rights violations to expedite the process.

In 2019, the police chief was in the news saying that officers are so overwhelmed they may not be able to arrest break and enter suspects.

When police do arrest those suspects, the sentencing too often can be “disappointing,” especially from a victim perspective.

How does that promote public safety?

Invariably the public is slowly being conditioned to the “new normal” in police response.

But is this not unlike other services? (Are they not listening too?)

In health care, we’re also being similarly “conditioned” to a different response; where medical assistance in dying is increasingly an option instead of proper treatment.

High crime compelled some people we know to emigrate from South America not long ago.

The large city where they lived was peaceful, but now it’s not.

To live you are constantly on edge, and people there have been conditioned into thinking this is the new normal.

People in some parts of Winnipeg live on edge, in areas that were once peaceful.

In South America, it was the failure of elected officials to do what they promised, but instead didn’t, and often looked after their own interests instead.

But the problems grow. So do these people we entrust with crucial decision-making actually have any skin in the game to be truly concerned enough?

Do they actually have the ability?

For example, do those responsible for Transit changes even take the bus, or even live in the city?

In 1984, you had to live in the city if you wanted to work there (imagine that). Policing issues, like Arlington Bridge structural problems, didn’t happen overnight.

You can’t keep kicking the can down the road long enough to collect your benefits and then run. No doubt the steady deterioration downtown would be blamed on climate change if it could, to delay accountability.

Something more perfunctory than rolling down the window is going to be required to address our growing concerns.

And it requires the right people.

Kevin Birkett retired from the Winnipeg Police Service in 2020.