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WPS Chief Gene Bowers announces the new Rapid Response Unit in April. (Mike Deal \/ Free Press files)<\/p>\n
And in a city where policing debates often swing between \u201cspend more\u201d and \u201cspend less,\u201d this is something else entirely: spend smarter.<\/p>\n
The concept is straightforward. Instead of constantly pulling officers away from specialized units \u2014 guns and gangs, community support, and others \u2014 whenever there\u2019s a major event or a spike in calls, the flex team will handle those demands as its primary job.<\/p>\n
When it\u2019s not tied up with a marathon, a rally or a protest, it can be deployed wherever pressures are building, based on real-time data and community need.<\/p>\n
That matters more than it might seem.<\/p>\n
Until now, Winnipeg police have essentially been robbing Peter to pay Paul. A protest downtown? Pull officers from another unit. A parade? Same thing. A sudden surge in calls in a neighbourhood? Shift resources again. Every time that happens, something else gets delayed or diminished.<\/p>\n
Police Chief Gene Bowers put it plainly: it wasn\u2019t an efficient use of resources.<\/p>\n
Policing isn\u2019t just about how many officers you have. It\u2019s about how you use them. And Winnipeg hasn\u2019t exactly been swimming in extra capacity.<\/p>\n
Even though the total number of officers has increased somewhat in recent years, it hasn\u2019t kept pace with population growth. The result is a slow but steady erosion in police presence relative to the size of the city.<\/p>\n
In 2013, Winnipeg had about 204 officers per 100,000 people. By 2024, that number dropped to 165.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not a small change. That\u2019s a significant decline over more than a decade.<\/p>\n
Now layer on top of that the reality of modern policing: more demonstrations, more large-scale public events, more complicated cases, and close to 800,000 calls for service a year \u2014 well over 2,000 a day, on average.<\/p>\n
Something has to give.<\/p>\n
Too often, what gives is response time \u2014 especially for lower-priority calls. Those are the calls that may not involve immediate danger but still matter deeply to the people making them: property crimes, disturbances, ongoing neighbourhood issues.<\/p>\n
When those calls get pushed down the priority list for hours \u2014 or longer \u2014 public confidence erodes. People feel ignored, frustration builds and small problems have a way of becoming bigger ones.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where the flex unit could have a real impact.<\/p>\n
By creating a dedicated team to absorb the predictable disruptions \u2014 protests, parades, rallies \u2014 the service frees up front-line officers to do the job they\u2019re supposed to be doing: responding to calls in a timely way. And when call volumes spike, the flex team becomes a pressure valve, helping to prevent the system from backing up.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not glamorous. But it\u2019s smart.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also happening at a time when the broader crime picture in Winnipeg is, cautiously, improving. Violent crime has been trending downward and overall crime has eased somewhat in recent years.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s good news. It takes some pressure off the system.<\/p>\n
Still, violent crime in Winnipeg may be declining, but it remains at historically high levels.<\/p>\n
Which makes the timing of this initiative important.<\/p>\n
When demand is still high but no longer spiking upward, it creates a window to rethink how resources are deployed. The flex unit is exactly that kind of adjustment \u2014 not a reactive scramble, but a proactive recalibration.<\/p>\n
And importantly, it\u2019s being done without adding new officers.<\/p>\n
That will inevitably raise some eyebrows. Can you really create a 32-officer unit without leaving gaps elsewhere?<\/p>\n
Bowers insists the answer is yes and even suggests the old way of doing things was already creating those gaps by constantly redeploying officers on the fly.<\/p>\n
Of course, the proof will be in the results. If response times improve \u2014 particularly for those long-neglected lower-priority calls \u2014 the flex unit will quickly prove its worth. If it doesn\u2019t, then it\u2019s just another internal reshuffle with a new name.<\/p>\n
\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n
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But on paper, at least, this looks like the kind of change policing experts have been calling for: more flexibility and more data-driven deployment.<\/p>\n
Winnipeg doesn\u2019t have the luxury of ignoring efficiency. With fewer officers per capita and ongoing demands on the system, every decision about resource allocation matters.<\/p>\n
The flex unit won\u2019t fix everything. It won\u2019t eliminate delays or erase the underlying pressures on the system. But it does suggest a shift in thinking \u2014 away from reactive decision-making and toward a more structured, flexible approach.<\/p>\n
In a service that fields thousands of calls a day, that kind of shift matters.<\/p>\n
tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n
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Tom Brodbeck Tom Brodbeck is an award-winning author and columnist with over 30 years experience in print media. He joined the Free Press in 2019. Born and raised in Montreal, Tom graduated from the University of Manitoba in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and commerce. Read more about Tom<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tom provides commentary and analysis on political and related issues at the municipal, provincial and federal level. His columns are built on research and coverage of local events. The Free Press\u2019s editing team reviews Tom\u2019s columns before they are posted online or published in print \u2013 part of the Free Press\u2019s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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