When crime doesn’t get a police response

Opinion

It sometimes looks as though there’s a bar set on crime in Winnipeg — and that’s the bar between whether a crime is serious enough for police to actually show up, or whether it isn’t.

Some crimes, it seems, are only investigated sporadically.

Cars are tossed overnight with absolute impunity. It’s far from uncommon to find puddles of broken glass on side streets, where thieves have smashed their way into parked vehicles.

Until police began a public crackdown against retail shoplifting last winter, shoplifters basically laughed at store staff as they left with whatever they wanted. (And when they were stopped in the process of stealing, shoplifters acted like they were the ones whose rights were being infringed.) Even with the crackdown, there’s still plenty of shoplifting going on.

Bicycle thieves ride down the street with impunity, often riding one bicycle while pulling another alongside. There are reports of bicycle chop shops operating in encampments.

Now, it seems, the bar for when the Winnipeg police can be expected to respond to a call for help has risen a little higher.

A homeowner in Crescentwood was unable to get police to respond to thieves who were ransacking his home during a break-in. Three days later, police contacted the homeowner and took a verbal report over the phone — but didn’t go to the man’s home, or give any indication whether they had acted on his information that location tracking on a laptop showed where it was.

“Police told us to leave the house and wait outside until they arrived. They also said don’t clean up until we get there. But they never did show up — apparently they were too busy. We finally went back inside about 90 minutes later after a neighbour showed us a video of the thieves leaving,” the homeowner told the Free Press.

The homeowner also had a blunt analysis of the situation: “If you’re not going to come, just say you’re not going to come.”

For their part, the Winnipeg Police Service said that all of their units in the area were answering more serious calls — and that the call was downgraded once they were told that the burglars had left the home.

Police also said that homeowners should not take matters into their own hands, even if they know where their stolen property has gone, because of the danger involved.

Is disregarding that advice going to end up as a tragedy?

Absolutely.

Sooner or later, a homeowner fearing for their safety will take matters into their own hands if the police don’t show up, and there will be deaths or serious injuries. Sooner or later, someone who has been robbed and knows where their property is will try to retrieve it.

The problem is that when the bar on crime is elevated to the point that you can’t count on the police to take action, others will.

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

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Deterrence is an important part of the justice system — people have to know there are consequences to illegal actions.

We’ve seen what the message has been when passengers have been allowed to walk onto Winnipeg Transit buses without paying. Many now do that with impunity.

We’ve seen what it’s meant when police are too busy to address thefts from vehicles or, absent anti-shoplifting blitzes, when they’re too busy to address thefts from retail outlets.

What’s the message when police are too busy to respond to a burglary in progress in a residential home, or when they’re too busy to use information showing where thieves have stashed stolen property?

Here’s a hint: it’s not a good one. The track record for other crimes is that less deterrence leads to more problems.