Retired police sergeant James Jewell remembers a night 30 years ago, outside of Winnipeg’s public safety building.

He was confronted by a man after his shift; Jewell was unarmed, the man had a knife.

"He pulled back the knife and swung at me and I actually used my bag to defend myself," said Jewell.

The Winnipeg Police Association says, each year, its members report about 20 incidents where officers are attacked, followed or their cars vandalized.

The police union wants subsidized secure parking for members near the new downtown headquarters, like the set up at recently-opened police stations in Transcona and Charleswood.

"A compounded, card-accessed, parking area where the members can walk from their vehicle to the station without fear,” said WPA president Moe Sabourin.

There's also a financial cost to not providing officers their own lot.

Manitoba labour laws dictate the service provide cab slips to officers who have to start and end their shifts between midnight and 6 a.m.

CTV News submitted a freedom of information request to find out how much this costs taxpayers.

In 2014, the Winnipeg Police Service spent $13,154 on taxi cab slips for people working at the public safety building.

In 2015, until the end of November, it was a cost of $10,895.

When the new headquarters is fully staffed, there will be 1,200 people in the building – twice as many as the public safety building.

The service projects the cost of cab slips will jump to $75,904 a year.

The union said fewer cab slips would be required if officers felt comfortable bringing their vehicles downtown; however, Coun. Shawn Dobson said taxi rides are still cheaper than the city building a new compound or parkade for officers' personal vehicles.

Especially, said Dobson, when considering the new headquarters is already more than $75 million over budget.

"Right now, our budget situation is pretty grim. So I'm not sure that we can afford this at this particular time," said Dobson.

Currently, there is no standard in Canada for downtown police headquarters to provide secured parking for personal vehicles:

  • Calgary and Saskatoon provide secure parking.
  • Regina has parking, but it's not secure.
  • Edmonton and Ottawa have limited secure space.
  • Montreal does not offer parking.
  • Vancouver would not disclose, citing security reasons.
  • Toronto did not respond to CTV's request for information.

When he was still on the force, James Jewell said he was led to believe the new headquarters would have parking for personal vehicles; he still hopes there's a solution.

The WPS denied CTV’s request for an interview on this issue; however, the service did send a statement about measures it takes to protect officers and staff members leaving work:

“The WPS does have a safewalk program in which members can be escorted to their vehicles or bus stops. We also have several other safety initiatives; however, we cannot comment further on those initiatives as it compromises the security of the programs in place.”