Hundreds gather in Winnipeg to tackle retail theft and safety

Posted on October 4, 2024 by Peggy

A first-of-its-kind summit for Manitoba has brought together a widely ranging group of private and public representatives to tackle retail theft and safety in the province.

More than 400 people are expected to attend Friday’s Retail Secure Manitoba Summit at downtown Winnipeg’s RBC Convention Centre.

“So often retailers have great conversations with police in isolation and governments in isolation, but the whole objective here is to bring all of the key people into one room,” said John Graham, Prairie region director with the Retail Council of Canada, which is hosting the event.

“We’ll have everything from small and large businesses to police services from across the province, private security, prosecution, different governments, unions, the number of community well-being organizations — all that play a role in finding solutions to these safety and security issues.”

Businesses are on the front lines of the issue, Graham said. In Winnipeg over the past year, a number of businesses have closed or relocated, citing violence and crime.

“I think there’s that perspective that retail theft is victimless, but not only is there a real financial impact to a lot of businesses, but also that human impact — when incidents occur in stores, there’s a lasting impact on those employees,” Graham told CBC Manitoba’s Information Radio guest host Faith Fundal.

An anti-theft initiative was launched in May, with the provincial government paying for police officers in Winnipeg to work overtime to target parts of the city where retail theft was most rampant — Osborne Village, the Exchange District and the West End.

The province also launched a community safety strategy in July, expanding community safety patrols and mental health training in downtown Winnipeg.

The retail summit was actually created in response to that latter strategy, Graham said.

“We really felt that there was a business piece missing there, because a lot of the community’s issues intersect and flow into businesses throughout our province,” he said.

“Today is really about looking at how we can support businesses to be more proactive in some of their issues around safety and security, but also how to interact with community groups and police and prosecution.”

Three police officers walk together, seen from the back. — Officers walk the beat in Winnipeg’s Exchange District in July as part of the violent crime and retail theft initiative. (Justin Fraser/CBC)

It’s important for businesses and their employees to know how to navigate the available supports because the issues they are sometimes exposed to can be complex, Graham said.

For instance, many are related to people struggling with addictions or mental health issues, he said.

“There’s just not a lot of experience for a lot of retailers on how to manage those types of incidents. They’re not really criminal and shouldn’t necessarily be using police resources,” Graham said.

The summit is an opportunity to discuss how to leverage the work of social services, police and groups like the Sabe Peace Walkers and Downtown Community Safety Partnership, he said.

“There’s so much great work being done in our community … but we really think there’s an opportunity to better connect the dots,” Graham said.

“At that same time, there is a tremendous amount of criminal activity in retail stores as well, and that’s where we want to make sure that there is real strong relationships with the police, with prosecution, and … that there’s real consequences to those actions.”

Graham hopes in the coming weeks there will be some concrete action plans for all the different groups involved to follow.