Anti-crime initiative on Winnipeg Transit gets positive results but ‘significant work’ remains: police | CBC News
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A 15-week pilot project to beef up officer presence and enforcement on Winnipeg buses and around transit stops yielded positive results, police say.
The Winnipeg Transit violent crime intervention strategy launched in September in response to growing concerns and incidents of violence and disorder on and around the Winnipeg Transit system.
In 2024, a record 325 violent crimes were reported at Winnipeg Transit locations, which was nearly triple the next-highest number, in 2019, the city said.
Spearheaded by the Winnipeg Police Service, the initiative involved WPS officers, transit staff and peace officers from the city’s community safety team. It wrapped up Dec. 31.
The police service, on Wednesday, released the results of the project. The data said total crimes decreased by 15.1 per cent, violent crimes decreased by 18.2 per cent and property crimes decreased by 15.2 per cent, compared to the same time frame the previous year.
The results reinforce the value of targeted enforcement and visible presence initiatives, the news release from the police service says.
Police officers spent 143 hours riding buses, 101 hours patrolling on foot at bus stops and other transit locations and another 36 hours patrolling those areas in marked cruisers.
They made 12 Criminal Code arrests and dealt with 98 fare evasions. Police did not say what type of enforcement was used in response to fare evasions.
During the initiative, police received 1,044 calls from transit authorities or operators. The number was 1,259 in the same time frame the previous year, the news release said.
“Although the statistics and downward trends appear to show positive results, the WPS knows significant work is still required in this area to meet the goals in a long-term sustainable way,” the release said.
To that end, officers from the Winnipeg Police Service and the community safety team will continue to provide a visible presence around the transit system “as part of their day-to-day responsibilities,” the release says, but it did not give further information about what exactly that means.