Additional police and drones for surveillance won’t reduce social issues despite mayoral candidates vowing to add more officers if elected, experts say.
The Winnipeg Police Service receives 27 per cent or $370 million of the City of Winnipeg’s budget, according to the city’s 2026 budget. The city’s operating budget is at $1.49 billion.
“Per capita, we are pretty high. I think usually a lot of cities that are just slightly smaller than us are around $260-290 per citizen. Winnipeg is over $350 to $360 per citizen,” said Kevin Walby, University of Winnipeg criminologist. “When we put this percentage of our money into policing year after year after year, and we don’t see any reduction in any of those issues — in fact, visibly and statistically they are much worse. You have to start to wonder why are we doing that?”
Get daily National news
Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you’ll never miss the day’s top stories.
Operating expenditures for policing in Canada totaled $22 billion in 2024-25, which is up 12 per cent from 2022-23, according to Statistics Canada.
“We are 100 police officers short of the very mere minimum of the per capita right now,” mayoral candidate Kevin Klein said on 680 CJOB.
“We need police officers, we do, we’re both committed to adding more police officers,” mayoral candidate Scott Gillingham said, also on 680 CJOB.
Mike Vogiatzakis said he would introduce drones as a tool to watch over the city and see where problems are at CBC Manitoba’s mayoral debate.
“As mayor, I’m going to instruct the police board and the police chief,” Vogiatzakis said. “I’ll sit with them within my first 30 days. I’ll sit with them and decide how we’re gonna change the city.”
The Winnipeg Police Service declined to comment.
Watch the video above for the full story.
