'It's not sustainable': Winnipeg police officers working more overtime

The Winnipeg Police Service is seeing officers work more hours in 2024 compared to last year according to the latest budget update.

The second quarter budget update was released Monday and overtime hours for officers are up 17 per cent compared to 2023.

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The force is predicting the 2024 overtime budget will be over by $2.3 million.

Some of the main reasons for overtime are the high volume of homicides, critical incidents, fatal traffic incidents, and "overall increase in violent crime coupled with the complexity of investigations."

"Overtime trend will continue as additional general patrol cars are regularly being added to address a high volume of calls for service, and callouts are being used to meet minimum staffing requirements as required by the collective agreement and to ensure public safety at protests, demonstrations and special events," the report reads.

Coun. Markus Chambers – the chair of the police board – said this overtime rate is not sustainable.

"We have to look at longer-term solutions to addressing the issues that we're facing in our community right now," Chambers. "From an economic standpoint, it's not sustainable."

Chambers said it helps that the province has been able to step in and provide resources to help with overtime through the retail theft initiative, but noted more needs to be done.

"The other issues that we're seeing in our city, in terms of violent crime, in terms of the public order events, those are all things that continue to happen, quite likely right through until the end of the year, Again, we need a longer-term strategy to ensure that we have the ability to effectively manage these cost controls."

The report also touched on photo radar enforcement in the city, showing the number of tickets is up 24 per cent from 2023.

Police are expected to bring in an additional $800,000 by the end of the year through photo enforcement – with construction zone violations being a big contributor to that cost.

"People are actually paying their fines. They recognize they sped through construction zones or through a school zone. So we're seeing that revenue come in, and that's what you're seeing in terms of some of those increases costs," said Chambers.

A report from the police chief recruitment committee was also released and an update was provided on the search for Winnipeg's next police chief.

Danny Smyth retired at the beginning of September and the committee was put together in December 2023 to find his replacement.

The committee said the project is on track and candidate interviews are expected to start in October.

All this information and more will be discussed at the Winnipeg Police Board meeting on Sept. 13.