Winnipeg police create new unit that focuses on lower priority calls

[CBH99]

Thoughts??

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-police-rapid-response-unit-9.7183050

 

[RangerRay]

I’m curious how this is going to work. Im kind of puzzled thinking how this will change things while retaining current staffing.

 

[lenaitch]

I'm not even clear on what they are trying to accomplish. Some of the proposed duties, like parades and special events could be done by special constables, traffic wardens or something similar. They could even extend that to barking dogs, some alarms and other 'non-priority' calls.

I'm confused with a 'rapid response' unit handling non-urgent type calls.

 

[mariomike]

I'm confused with a 'rapid response' unit handling non-urgent type calls.

Not sure why they would send "Clock-Stoppers" to deferable calls.

At least, that's my understanding of a Rapid Response Unit.

Members will be directing traffic

It's the same number of officers, they're just in a different package

 

[OldSolduer]

I’m curious how this is going to work. Im kind of puzzled thinking how this will change things while retaining current staffing.

Our newest chief of police does not inspire confidence in me. I’m not sure about his intentions.

 

[brihard]

Winnipeg police have pensionable overtime, which the employer has tried and failed to get rid of. I wouldn’t be surprised if they want to get a unit in place to help reduce some of the sorts of duties that often go to overtime members, like special events.

 

[Booter]

It’ll be cheaper to have that flexible unit of floaters than to have people on paid duty, it’s like brihard said,

Nothing they are saying is new or not used elsewhere- it’s just a blocked off set of people that are flexing each shift around what that shift needs- while selling it as they are dealing with the long hanging “priority 5” calls.

They haven’t made anything new but a weird naming convention for a thing that is essentially just offsetting the amount of paid duty the city has.

I’m reasonably confident when you look at them in a year you’ll find they do almost zero handling of long hanging low priority files with the exception of a couple peak days.

 

[lenaitch]

It’ll be cheaper to have that flexible unit of floaters than to have people on paid duty, it’s like brihard said,

Nothing they are saying is new or not used elsewhere- it’s just a blocked off set of people that are flexing each shift around what that shift needs- while selling it as they are dealing with the long hanging “priority 5” calls.

They haven’t made anything new but a weird naming convention for a thing that is essentially just offsetting the amount of paid duty the city has.

I’m reasonably confident when you look at them in a year you’ll find they do almost zero handling of long hanging low priority files with the exception of a couple peak days.

So by trying to replace members on paid duty with some kind of 'flexible unit', is the city picking up the tab for what otherwise would be paid for by event organizers? it seems counter-intuitive.

I tend to agree with your conclusion. Unless they are some kind of specialty, targetted teams/units/patrols such as this usually end up getting absorbed into the overall call list.

 

[Booter]

I suspect- the city would still most likely bill for the hours as it’s outside of core function, they would just “reassign” these members off low priority calls () to the task. I’ve managed a similar policing contract that billed for hours we already had because it contains tasks outside of the function definitions we used. So the municipality and the agency entered into a billing contract that allowed the third party to buy hours.

The scam is in them having substantive duties that aren’t special events and then assigning them to them.

Keeping this pool flexible then reduces the OT burn rate and allows the city to bring down their contributions to the pension etc

 

[medicineman]

Winnipeg police create new unit that focuses on lower priority calls​

How about have enough police to respond to calls FULL STOP? Might need to chat up my brother about this - he works for the Mayor.

 

[GK .Dundas]

Winnipeg police create new unit that focuses on lower priority calls​

How about have enough police to respond to calls FULL STOP? Might need to chat up my brother about this - he works for the Mayor.

The Police Service has been undermanned for at least the last decade.

 

[medicineman]

The Police Service has been undermanned for at least the last decade.

Several actually - when my parents moved here in the early 90's, some neighbourhoods were hiring security companies to do deterrence patrols. IIRC, they not only had the lowest wage of any municipal police force for any major city in Canada at that point, but also (as a result) one of the highest corruption rates as well. When my kid brother worked for a previous Mayor, he told me as we were wandering down Portage Ave across from Portage Place (where someone had their throat slashed at noon at the bus stop in front a several hundred people only about 2 days prior) that there were exactly 2 patrol officers for the entire downtown core at that time - this was fall 2007. When I was there in the summer on a different rotation, there was a quadruple shooting 4 blocks from the apartment where I was staying, several stabbings, a police involved shooting earlier that week and later in the rotation, I looked after a psych patient that single handedly/footedly demolished a dozen or so cars about a block away from where I was staying - and that response took a very long time to get enough people there to end the problem. I also helped break up a violent assault going on when I was out for a walk - oddly, the other 3 people that helped were, like me, from out of town. My program director in Borden thought I was joking when they told us where we'd be staying in Winnipeg when I asked if we were getting gun permits.

 

[brihard]

Find me a city that has enough police for the crime that’s happening and I’ll tell you you’ve found yourself in Narnia. In addition to crime and investigations being more complex, the amount of time and effort that goes into disclosure for court has amplified greatly. Each individual chargeable file and prosecution takes a lot more time now. Cities have grown and are more spread out. Police and policing are more expensive.

Everyone’s playing triage.