POLICE RANKS STRETCHED

Some Say West End Focus Leaves Suburbs Vulnerable

A new city police strike team that started flexing its muscles on
streets last month is also showing that Winnipeg police ranks are
thinly stretched, police sources said yesterday.

Police call it the street crime unit and say it replaces Operation
Clean Sweep, the successful enforcement project set up a year ago to
tackle drug dealers, gangsters and street prostitutes in the city's West End.

About 20 officers are now assigned to the new unit focusing on crime
in the West End. More officers will be added as the unit expands to
go after criminals throughout the entire city.

But sources said the creation of the strike team has meant officers
have had to be transferred from other areas of the service to make up
the street crime unit.

One area hit hardest will be suburban police stations. There are
fewer officers, now, to investigate property crimes in a timely
manner or go after speeders, sources said.

"It shows how understaffed we are," one officer said. Deputy Police
Chief Menno Zacharias said the service has tried to mitigate strains
on other units as best as possible.

"It is going to cause some operational difficulties, but it's nothing
we can't deal with," he said.

That strain will be eased over the next year as the service hires
about 50 more officers, he said.

"I think the vast majority of members buy into what we're trying to
accomplish," he added.

Operation Clean Sweep was created almost a year ago by Mayor Sam Katz
and Police Chief Jack Ewatski following the Thanksgiving slaying of
an innocent young man on Sargent Avenue. He was killed by a bullet
fired by a suspected gang member.

In response, police redeployed 45 officers from existing units to
shut the drug trade and arrest gang members. What set them apart from
other patrol units is they were "non-dispatchable", meaning they were
free to develop their own arrests instead of dealing with radio call
after radio call.

But Clean Sweep also stretched police resources. Many officers in
those existing units had to work extra overtime to keep up with
emergency calls and public demands. Sources said the same thing is
happening now.

But Zacharias said increased funding from the province and a
commitment from city hall allows the service to develop the new unit over time.

He added the civic election has not delayed the matter.

"It doesn't matter who's mayor. The project is going to go ahead."

The cost of the new unit is estimated to be $3.5 million over five years.

Last April, the province increased speeding fines and promised to
hand over $2 million in new revenue to city police.

The unit will also be the basis for Katz's plan to use
computer-generated real-time crime statistics to better fight crime.

Katz's CRIME-STAT program is known as COMPSTAT in U.S. cities such as
Minneapolis, Newark, N.J. and New York City.

Got A Problem? Help Is A Click Away

The new Street Crime Unit is up and running. If you have trouble with
gang members or drug dealers, you can e-mail them by going to
www.winnipeg.ca/police and clicking on street crime unit.