An increased volume of 911 calls and a lack of workers to answer them is a formula for disaster.
“The demand for service is outstripping the resources we have,” Winnipeg Police Chief Danny Smyth said at Friday’s police board meeting.
In the past 10 years, there’s a been a 46-per cent turnover rate in their call centre, he says.
“The turnover in (the call centre) is unlike any other area in our service,” said Smyth.
A high turnover rate hit with rising calls has created a significant challenge, he says. An average of 500 calls to their comms centre for service are made daily.
That is a 10-per cent increase in the past year.
Smyth says the number one type of call they receive is for well-being checks. Police board chair, Markus Chambers, says those calls could be better suited for a different type of provider.
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“To better align the service need to the service response, it’s going to lessen the demand on police and bring them back to traditional policing roles,” Chambers says.
Police are also reporting a 26-per cent increase in emergency calls in the last year.
Last weekend, 38 calls where made where five or more cars had to be dispatched to each incident, tying up each officer for hours, police superintendent of uniform operations Dave Dalal said during Friday’s meeting.
Because of this, he says investigations are also becoming more complex.
As for whether officers should get a pay raise, Chambers says the severity of crimes along with population growth should be something to take into consideration.
“It all depends on citizen expectation, so if citizens want quicker response time or to have a police member there to dust for fingerprints and try to get that analysis done, then yes, we’re going to have to increase the resources to have that done.”
Perception over how police fight crime is also a concern.
According to its latest citizens survey, just 55 per cent of Winnipeggers rated the quality of the police service as excellent or good, a drop from 64 per cent in 2019.
Chief Smyth says he plans to submit a report later this year that is likely to impact the 2023 budget as he plans to ask for additional resources.
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