Winnipeg police seeing increase in gun-related calls, violent crime, theft of car accessories: report

A new report from the Winnipeg Police Service shows that the service is seeing an increase in gun-related calls, assaults involving weapons, and theft of catalytic converters.

On Wednesday, police released the Winnipeg Police Service 2021 Statistical Report, which includes a collection of statistics related to police and crime in the city.

In a statement, Winnipeg Police Chief Danny Smyth said the report is informative, but is missing the context and stories behind the crime reports.

He noted in 2021, the community was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, restrictions and isolation. This means that for the second year in a row police have to try to determine how this environment affected crime trends and calls for service.

“There were several dynamics observed in 2021; some were interesting, and some were downright alarming,” he said.

According to the report, police received 671,364 calls to its communication centre – a 9.9 per cent increase compared to 2020. However, the total number of dispatched events was lower than in 2020, going from 241,717 to 234,058.

The report shows that last year police responded to 20,704 well-being checks, which is a nine per cent increase from the year before.

As for the specific types of crimes in the city, there were 10,993 violent crimes in 2021. This is a five per cent increase compared to 2020, and a six per cent increase over the five-year average.

According to Winnipeg police, this increase was largely driven by a resurgence in assaults, especially those involving weapons.

The report shows that in 2021, there were 1,199 violent crimes committed using a knife and 470 using guns. Police said on average, they receive five gun-related calls per day.

In terms of property crime, the city saw 39,670 instances in 2021, which is a decrease of 11 per cent over 2020 and seven per cent compared to the five-year average.

Police note that property crime has changed over the past few years. The change has to do with the fact that there have been fewer reports of shoplifting, particularly in liquor stores, but a sustained increase in the theft of vehicle accessories, especially catalytic converters.

For the third year in a row, Winnipeg saw a high number of homicides with 43 in 2021. This is a 2.4 per cent increase over the year before.

Police are reporting 38 hate crimes in 2021, which is a 46.2 per cent increase over 2020. However, the report notes that the actual number of hate crimes that occurred may actually be higher.

Of these 38 hate crimes, 53 per cent were race/ethnicity-related, 39 per cent were religious hate crimes, and eight per cent related to sexual orientation.

The report also breaks down which areas of the city saw the most amount of crime. It shows that 21.3 per cent of total crime took place in the north district, 24.2 per cent in the central district, 28.1 per cent in the west district and 22.7 per cent in the east district.

As for who is being charged for crimes, 76 per cent of those charged in 2021 were men and boys, while 24 per cent were women and girls. The report also showed that 91.5 per cent of people charged were adults and 8.5 per cent were youth.

Winnipeg Police Association President Maurice Sabourin cautions that statistics don't tell the whole picture.

“It's only as good as the reporting. I believe that unfortunately for several reasons citizens are reluctant or they feel it's a waste of time to report lesser crimes," Sabourin said.

He wants to see more general patrol officers, saying officers are often driving from call to call.

"They are responding from one call to the next. All citizens will be seeing is a car zooming by."

 The full report can be found online.

-with files from CTV's Taylor Brock