Winnipeg woman calls 911, gets call back from mayor

WINNIPEG – A woman who called 911 to report a person in distress got a call back within minutes from Mayor Brian Bowman, thanking her for performing her civic duty.

Bowman was on a ride along with the Winnipeg Police Service Friday night when the cruiser he was in responded to the report of a man wandering down the middle of a downtown street with his eyes closed.

While the officer put the intoxicated man into the back of the car, Bowman noticed the 911 caller’s phone number on the cruiser’s computer screen and decided to call.

“I said I’m Mayor Brian Bowman, I understand you called 911 and wanted to thank you,” Bowman told Global News. “You could have saved this guy’s life.”

Bowman says the woman, named Tracy, was “taken aback” at the surprise call from the city’s top official but ultimately appreciated the gesture.

The man was later taken to the Main Street Project, a shelter on Martha Street that includes an Intoxicated Persons Detention Unit.

The mayor first told the story of Tracy’s 911 call during his speech at the Volunteer Manitoba awards Tuesday night, as an example of a selfless act that helped make the city a better place.

Bowman’s police ride along was his first since being elected mayor last October. He rode with a police staff sergeant from 4 p.m. until about 11:30 p.m. Friday, responding to calls mostly in Winnipeg’s core area.

“It’s one thing to meet with (police),” Bowman said. “It’s another to get out on the street and see the work they do.”

Bowman wore police issue body armour and accompanied the officer outside the vehicle on all his calls but “never felt unsafe.”

“I was shown where the button was to press if we needed backup,” Bowman said.

Most of the calls he saw involved people who were intoxicated or found with open alcohol, but Bowman says this didn’t give him a negative impression of the city’s downtown.

“What I saw was a compassionate side to the problem all major cities face,” Bowman said, praising the work of police officers, cadets, firefighters and paramedics and the “compassion and humanity they have to have.”

Bowman says he may accompany police and other emergency services on the job in the future.