Safety groups to improve coordination, says Winnipeg mayor
Mayor Scott Gillingham called the Safe Winnipeg Initiative a 'blanket of safety' for Winnipeg's West End and Downtown. He toured some West End businesses Monday afternoon with Winnipeg Police Board Chair Markus Chambers, Daniel McIntyre Coun. Cindy Gilroy, Winnipeg West End BIZ Executive Director Joe Kornelsen, and other City of Winnipeg representatives.
Angela Hyland has owned and operated Flowers in Bloom on Ellice Avenue for the past 10 years. She told Global News she's arrived at work to find graffiti scrawled on her storefront and has had to install shatterproof windows and a pricey surveillance camera system. Some potential thieves have climbed the brick wall into the shop's backyard. Even so, Hyland acknowledges that her business hasn't been targeted as often as many others in the area.
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'They can't make any money off of flowers,' she said.
Still, she welcomes the idea of more efficient street patrols, from the Winnipeg Police Service or other agencies – for her and her neighbouring businesses' sakes.
'I want Ellice to become more vibrant,' she said.
Mayor Gillingham said the initiative will see the Winnipeg Police Service's downtown foot patrols, the Downtown Community Safety Partnership, the City of Winnipeg's Community Safety Team, and the West End and Downtown BIZ's foot patrols sharing communication to make the best use of their resources and skills.
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'We want to make sure that we roll out a formal plan to make sure we are identifying the gaps and the overlaps in public safety,' Gillingham told reporters after the tour.
'Rather than have the overlap and the gaps, let's do a better job of coordinating all this so our downtown is safer, the businesses get the help they need, residents get the help they need, and the people that are struggling get the help they need as well.'
For Cobra Collectibles owner Mike Paille, that help can't come soon enough. Paille has 65 cameras inside and outside his Sargent Avenue shop, but it still doesn't deter thieves. Paille told Gillingham he's seen some perpetrators wave at the cameras before targeting his business.
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'I really think working together is the only way we are going to stop the problem, because individually, nothing's really getting done,' Paille said.
He gave Gillingham a file folder full of his concerns and accounts of incidents that he and other area businesses have experienced. He hopes it can inform the city's crime strategy.
'Here's everything we deal with as a business. Go through it and you can understand what we understand,' he said.
Still, some businesses are skeptical of the plan. Subodh Vatsyayan and his family run Bread N Biryani, an Indian restaurant at the corner of Ellice Avenue and Maryland Street. The restaurant was not part of Gillingham's tour.
'We do not want to be collecting these,' Vatsyayan told Global News, holding five cards from Winnipeg police, each given to him by an officer responding to incidences of theft or violence.
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Subodh Vatsyayan of Bread N Biryani on Ellice Avenue holds cards, each one given to him by Winnipeg police officers following an incidence of violence or theft at his restaurant. Iris Dyck/Global News
Vatsyayan showed Global News surveillance footage of a man entering the restaurant, picking up a chair and throwing it into the dining room before quickly running outside. He said break-ins to customers' and their own vehicles in their parking lot are common. He's delaying repairing a window cracked by a violent guest as claiming the damage through his insurance would raise his premium.
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Vatsyayan says he sees some of the same offenders back on the street, saying 'there is no use' in better coordination without tougher penalties for retail crimes.
'No one wants to come here in the evening, they order online,' he said.
Gillingham did not give a timeline as to when the initiative will be fully implemented.
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