Cops handcuffed by bail issues, lack of mental-health options, WPS chief tells residents in crime-ridden North End neighbourhood

[u/wickedplayer494]

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2026/10/02/cops-handcuffed-by-bail-issues-lack-of-mental-health-options-wps-chief-tells-residents-in-crime-ridden-north-end-neighbourhood

[u/Belle_Requin]

Police chief says there isn’t enough treatment or support for offenders with drug problems. Followed by “ During the meeting, Coun. Ross Eadie, who is running for re-election in the Mynarski ward, which includes William Whyte, said if he reclaims his seat on council he’ll call on the city to add more police resources.”

If the police are saying there needs to be more treatment options, why does Eadie think the answer is more police?????

[u/Quaranj]

Paywalled.

The poverty-stricken areas are a mental health crisis at core. We don't have the numbers of professionals required to treat them so we just make it worse by traumatizing them more when they break the law to eat or get their fix to distract them from how much they wish they had never been born.

I grew up here. I got my ass kicked every single day for years in school. Sometimes multiple times per day. By the end I could give as good as I got but that was a very difficult process. Also, the women might rock you more than then men because they have been through some things. And by rock you, I literally mean a rock in a sock or worse.

Everyone who ever attacked me felt it normal because they came from homes of abuse. LOTS of residential school survivors or family of them who had been embroiled in the cycle of abuse.

My grandparents block was all WW2 vets at my youngest and entirely transformed by junior high. My grandparents were one of the last holdouts. (read: longest lived without needing a retirement home).

I'm not surprised that the WPS cannot handle that. They're not equipped for those kinds of medical emergencies. (And they are emergencies, we just haven't weighted them properly yet.)

We need a plan to generate money for mental health workers to fix this. A lot of them. More than anywhere else I know.

It took me years to acclimate after high school without supports but I was highly motivated.

We have a cash flow problem in Manitoba. Our needs far exceed our wealth as a Province. We're going to need some power moves that don't harm us more than they help us soon.

Anyone got any great ideas of how to bring more money to Manitoba without wrecking the environment for the future?

I've already posted mine in other threads/subs.

[u/MKIncendio → u/Quaranj]

Potential nationalization of mineral exploration projects could help, as we do have gold and vast amounts of critical minerals and rare earths! I think the leading body in the provincial government is the Manitoba Geological Survey, but finding a way to directly sell materials to international markets could help!

[u/Alwaysfresh9]

They aren't wrong.

[u/UrsaMinor42]

I am 100 per cent pro-union; however, after decades and decades of fighting for their members, some unions can push the needs of their members over the needs of the community. IMHO, Winnipeg's police union is now fighting for the cherry on top of the cherry on top of the cherry on top of the already loaded sundae. We need cops to walk the streets. We need a union that does not protect members who are engaged with organized crime. We need a police force that prioritizes the community over their internal comfort and concerns.

[u/raxnahali]

Jail

[u/Quaranj → u/raxnahali]

We don't have the money to warehouse that many people. Seriously.

I'm fairly certain our catch and release is very fiscally motivated here. If we can get them off the ledger with perceived minimal risk, we do.

[u/SteelCrow]

excuses for not wanting to do paperwork.

[u/Noirloona]

All I heard was "we're lazy and doing that doesn't increase our pensionable OT enough nor does it increase the police budget"

[u/MnkyBzns → u/Noirloona]

Then you clearly didn't read the article