Last summer, Winnipeg police launched an initiative deploying officers to Osborne Village in an effort to curb crime and retail theft, but now, as we look ahead to summer 2026, one business owner who has been vocal about the issue says he thinks the problem is only getting worse.

“If I compare last year to this year, it was pretty much the same, I can say a little more incidents [have] happened. Last year, it happened maybe once or twice a week, and this year it’s the same, maybe four or five times a week,” said Mridul Vohra, the owner of Fresh Slice at River and Osborne.

Vohra spoke last July at the Winnipeg police event to launch the initiative, which was started due to a 44 per cent increase in assaults at the time. He says since then, he has noticed more of a police presence, but it hasn’t helped. On Tuesday morning penned a letter to the Premier and other stakeholders.

“Even last Thursday, early morning about 3 a.m., a guy was in my store, threatening first my employee, and then one of my employees when she tried to close the door, the guy hit her, and also [showed] bad sexual symbols to my employees and things like that,” said Vohra.

Ashok Malhotra has owned a jewellery store with his wife in Osborne for six years. He feels the added presence has acted as a major deterrent.

“It’s a good program, it helps, but it hasn’t eliminated everything,” said Malhotra. “They’ve been great for this area, you don’t even see the riff raff sometimes, you know, they know that the cops are here, so they move away, and that’s what we need, we need this place to become vibrant like it used to be once upon a time, and that’s only going to happen if we have security in the area.”

Winnipeg Police say, “We are also continuing to track the number of incidents and arrests that result from our proactive policing and are happy to report that although the numbers are down, that is great news as it means that slowly but surely, we are making a difference.”

For Vohra, he says the root of the problem lies not with a lack of enforcement, but with bail legislation.

“I’ve seen people from my store who got arrested, and they have 10 charges, or over 10 charges, and then still they’re out, so it’s just about the justice system, I can say, because I’m going to call 9-1-1, and they’re going to arrest the person, and then now what? You know, he’s back on the street the next day,” said Vohra.

Osborne Village businesses have mixed feelings on police efforts to curb crime. (Eddie Huband, CityNews)