It was what police are calling a very rare situation –a standoff lasting nearly four hours with an armed man barricaded inside a south Winnipeg beer store.
But Moe Sabourin, president of the Winnipeg Police Association, fears more incidents like the one Thursday night in Fort Garry could happen again, due to an “inadequate” police budget.
READ MORE: Standoff suspect involved in meth-fuelled crime spree
“And with an inadequate budget supplied by the mayor and city council, the resources become stretched very thin.”
“The calls for service have increased 10 per cent, the violent crime index is literally off the scale,” Sabourin said.
Police said the standoff, and the city-wide crime spree leading up to it, was fueled by meth.
“I think we’re going to see more of this with the way meth causes some people to behave,” Sabourin added.
A spokesperson for Mayor Bowman said the 2018 police budget is the highest in the city’s history and it has increased in the last four years.
Bowman told 680 CJOB that union ads currently running are a political tactic not based on fact.
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“This union in particular has been very good at demanding more money, but not very good at suggesting ways in which to be more efficient with the historic levels of funding that the police continue to receive,” Bowman said.
READ MORE: Mayor denounces police association ad as ‘fear-mongering’
Sabourin said incidents like the standoff can stick with officers for a while and resources are provided.
“We do have what is called a post traumatic incident protocol that also requires the member to see a police psychologist to make sure they’re coping with the situation properly,” Sabourin said.
He says this service is available to all officers.
“An individual can self-declare they require help, and a supervisor can maybe notice that one of the constables is not dealing well with the situation and say ‘listen, I think we need to activate protocol’.”
WPS Const. Jay Murray said the way the standoff was resolved by officers, including the crisis negotiation unit, was the best-case scenario.
“This is probably a situation that will hang with officers that were on scene for some time,” Murray said.
“We train very hard to deal with situations like this, we learn to be patient. What you saw (Thursday) was a group of different units from Winnipeg police that came together using their own specialized training.”
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