TIME RUNNING OUT ON CLEAN SWEEP?

Lack of Money Threatens Successful Police Operation

MAYOR Sam Katz vowed yesterday to keep the successful Operation Clean
Sweep up and running for as long as possible.

But Katz admitted he doesn't have the money yet and critics say
there's a cloud over how long police can keep the 45-officer task
force on the street without straining an already understaffed city
police force.

Katz said he'd go after the Harper government and the province for
more funding for the program, which has cost about $1.6-million so
far.

"If something is working you want to continue it," Katz said as he met
five police officers assigned to Clean Sweep at the Ellice Cafe and
Theatre in the West End. "By the same token you want to make sure
you're doing it right."

Katz also said he didn't want Clean Sweep to end up as the Family
Violence Intervention Program did two years ago. The three-year pilot
teamed up two police officers with two social workers to respond to
family violence calls where no arrests were made. The program died in
a funding dispute with the province, but was resurrected six months
later by the Doer government to be expanded province-wide.

Loren Schinkel, president of the Winnipeg Police Association, said the
police service faces a shortage of officers in the coming weeks and
months.

He said the current complement is 1,252 officers but, this year and
next, 550 officers are eligible to retire after serving at least 20
years. The service has tried to double-up on recruiting, but has been
met with a dire lack of applicants -- a problem partly due to a good
economy creating more jobs elsewhere.

Schinkel said the recruit class starting at the end of the month was
supposed to have 48 people, but is down by 18.

"They can't get enough qualified people to hire," he
said.

"That's the worst time," inner-city activist Rev. Harry Lehotsky of
New Life Ministries said. "That's the time we get hit with criminals."

Clean Sweep was launched last fall following the shooting death of
Phil Haiart. Haiart was an innocent bystander killed in a gang-related
shooting.

The task force put the 45 officers into the West End to solely focus
on gangs, drugs and street crime, like prostitution. Since it started
last fall, 429 people have been arrested. Lehotsky and others said as
a result, crime is down in the West End and people feel safer.

Schinkel and the five officers who met with Katz said the project lets
them tackle specific issues without jumping from one radio call to the
next.

"This is the way policing should be done every day by everyone,"
Const. Peter O'Kane told Katz. "People are happy to see us out there."
Patrol Sgt. Damian Turner said officers working in round-the-clock
Clean Sweep -- the 45 officers assigned to it means roughly 10 are on
the street at peak times -- are enthusiastic about their work.

Schinkel added the 45 officers in Clean Sweep came from somewhere in
the service. Other officers have had to take on heavier workloads to
make up that difference and in some cases police response times, like
to break-ins, are a lot longer, if at all.

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CLEAN SWEEP NUMBERS

Since Operation Clean Sweep was created last fall, it has recorded
these numbers:

429: people charged with Criminal Code offences

24: firearms seized

37: other weapons (stun guns, batons, knives) seized

2,517: grams of cocaine seized

22: kilograms of marijuana seized

104: Ecstasy pills seized

75: grams of methamphetamine seized

43: cellphones seized

11: vehicles seized

620: spot checks of known gang members

618: vehicles stopped

2,962: hours officers have walked the beat

137: tips to police either through phone tip line (986-8435) or
special e-mail at http://www.winnipeg.ca/police

Source: Winnipeg Police Service