Law, government, and crime in Winnipeg


The municipal government of Winnipeg is represented by 15 city councillors and a mayor elected every four years. On July 27, 1971, the City of Winnipeg absorbed the R. M. of Charleswood, the R. M. of Fort Garry, the R. M. of North Kildonan, the R. M. of Old Kildonan, the Town of Tuxedo, the City of East Kildonan, the City of West Kildonan, the City of St. Vital, the City of Transcona, the City of St. Boniface, the City of St. James-Assiniboia, the old City of Winnipeg and Metropolitan Corporation of Greater Winnipeg were amalgamated to create a unicity.
The first election for the newly combined city was held on October 6, 1971. The City Council consisted of 50 councillors and one mayor. The councillors were elected on the basis of one councillor per city ward while the mayor was elected by the city-at-large. The term of office was three years. The inaugural meeting of the new council took place on January 4, 1972.
Since 50 councillors proved too unwieldy the city wards were reduced to 29 in 1977. In 1992 the city wards were reduced even further to the present 15 and city councillors became full-time politicians.
On June 22, 2004, Sam Katz was elected as the first Jewish mayor of Winnipeg. He beat out prominent politicians Dan Vandal, Al Golden, and MaryAnn Mihychuk for the job by receiving 42.51% of the vote. This came after the resignation of Glen Murray as mayor of Winnipeg to run in the 2004 federal election.
Katz was re-elected to a second term in the 2006 elections on October 25, 2006. After promising in his first election to run for only two terms, Katz ran for a third term in 2010. He was re-elected in the 2010 elections. Brian Bowman, the City's first Aboriginal Mayor, was elected as the 43rd Mayor of the City of Winnipeg in a landslide victory on October 22nd, 2014.
Winnipeg is represented in the House of Commons of Canada by eight Members of Parliament., four are from the Liberal Party of Canada, two are from the Conservative Party of Canada and two are from the New Democratic Party.

Politics

Starting in 1900, in both provincial and federal elections, central Winnipeg elected politicians from the Labour Party. Winnipeg was the site of a general strike from May 15 to June 28, 1919. There were violent protests during this strikes, several deaths at the hands of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police, and the arrest of many of Winnipeg's future politicians. Though it was not chartered until 1932, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation was born not only out of the depression but also out of the labour unrest of 1919. Its successor, the New Democratic Party, has enjoyed much support in Winnipeg since the early 1960s. Winnipeg's longest-serving Members of Parliament include J.S. Woodsworth, Stanley Knowles, David Orlikow, Bill Blaikie, and Lloyd Axworthy.
Aside from being the provincial capital of Manitoba, Winnipeg has served as the capital for two other Canadian territories: the Northwest Territories from 1870 to 1876 and the District of Keewatin from 1876 to 1905.

Police and Crime

Law enforcement

Winnipeg is policed by the Winnipeg Police Service, which in 2012, had 1,442 police officers. In 2017, Winnipeg had 192 police officers per 100,000 people, down from 200 in 2015. A change that is consistent with an overall decline in police officers per capita across Canada, which saw a 1% drop last year and a 1% decline the year before. At 192, Winnipeg has among the highest number of cops per capita among major Canadian cities with populations of 500,000 or more.

Crime Rates

Violent crime

In 2019, Winnipeg had the highest murder rate among Canada's cities. From 1981 to 2012, Winnipeg had the highest murder rate among Canada's largest nine cities 16 times for a rate of 16.2 per 100,000 residents. There were an additional 4 unlawful deaths, which would bring the rate to 6.8. This rate was around 4 times higher than the national rate at 1.7 per 100,000 people. The next year, there were 30 known homicides in Winnipeg for a rate of 4.5 per 100,000 residents, with an addition 3 unlawful deaths equating to a rate of 5.0. Again, a few times higher than the national rate at 1.6. The robbery rate in 2012 was between 250.1 and 272.9, as the annual crime report and CrimeStat had different numbers. The annual crime report, reported 1,660 robberies, where as CrimeStat reported 1,811. Regardless, the rate is several times higher than the national average at 79.4. Winnipeg's robbery rate peaked at 346.7 in 2009, the much lower robbery rate in 2012 of course shows a decrease in this violent crime.
Even though Winnipeg experiences high rates of violent crime, the city has witnessed a general decreasing trend in the frequency of these crimes. For example, the assault rate has dropped every year since 2009 from 953.4 per 100,000 residents to 810.9 in 2012. Although this rate is still not as low as the number recorded in 2007, it is substantially lower than the years of 1996 to 2002 when the average rate was 1049.8 per 100,000 residents. The robbery and sexual assault rates are also lower than they were back in 2009. The only rate that has increased, is the homicide rate.

The concentration of crime in Winnipeg

Despite high overall violent crime rates compared to other Canadian cities, crime in Winnipeg is very concentrated. For example, 80 of 234 neighbourhoods had not one robbery in 2012, and 32 others only had one robbery. But there were 25 neighbourhoods that had higher robbery rates than the highest robbery rate in Toronto, such as Lord Selkirk Park with a rate of 4,395.6., or South Portage at 4,139.8. The two highest rankings are South Point Douglas and Logan-C.P.R. but both have lower populations under 1,000 residents. Lord Selkirk Park and South Portage compare to some of the most dangerous neighbourhoods in the United States of America, however no ranking is 100% certain as Canada and the USA have different classifications for crimes,, and there are also no recorded assault rates for Winnipeg neighbourhoods.
The 20 neighbourhoods in Winnipeg with the highest robbery rates, all have boundaries which connect to each other; South Point Douglas, Logan - C.P.R., Lord Selkirk Park, South Portage, Portage - Ellice, Dufferin Industrial, Spence, Central Park, St. John's Park, William Whyte, West Alexander, North Point Douglas, Centennial, Colony, China Town, Dufferin, Daniel Mcintyre, St. John's, Portage & Main and West Broadway; which in 2006 had a cumulative population of 54,255. In 2012, with 918 robberies, this geographical cluster is where the majority of violent crime happens in Winnipeg - 918 of the 1,812 robberies in the city, occurred in this area, where only 8.7% of the cities total population lives. From 2009 to 2013, 95 of the 145 homicides in Winnipeg occurred in this smaller portion of the city, creating an average homicide rate of 35.0 per 100,000 residents, peaking at 57.1 in 2011. If we subtract these areas from the city, the homicide rate average in Winnipeg is substantially lower at 1.8 per 100,000 people, and the robbery rate in the city is over 1,000% lower at 156.7.

Property crime

Neighbourhoods

Only neighborhoods with over 1,000 people, and more than one homicide are accounted for in this table. These rates are from 4 years, 2009 to 2012.
There are over 25 other neighbourhoods with homicides, however they did not qualify

Crime by District

The City of Winnipeg has five distinct police districts:
District 1District 2District 3East DistrictDistrict 6Not District Specific
Violent Crime2,9586332,3481,57594031
Property Crimes7,6913,6976,4147,7325,3091,019
Other Crimes12,6894,79810,70710,3556,8161,067
Total Area

Manitoba

In 2011, Manitoba had the highest violent crime rate and homicide rate of all Canadian provinces