Winnipeg Free Press By: Dan Lett | Posted: 7:00 PM CST Monday, Mar. 8, 2021
Danny Smyth has been stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place.
On the one side, the Winnipeg Police Service chief is facing mounting public pressure to reinvent policing in the city in the wake of a global reform campaign.
On the other, Smyth is struggling to placate increasingly frustrated and angry rank-and-file officers, who believe he has failed to protect them against a wave of anti-police sentiment.
Even though there has only ever been a sliver of breathing room between these two intractable constituencies, Smyth has somehow managed to avoid being crushed.
Posted: Mar 05, 2021 7:13 PM CT | Last Updated: March 6
Winnipeg Police Association president Moe Sabourin made known the union s plans for an external survey and assessment in a letter addressed to Winnipeg police Chief Danny Smyth Friday.(CBC News)
The union that represents Winnipeg police officers is seeking an outside organization to conduct an assessment of the police force to address what it sees as a morale crisis among its members.
The Winnipeg Police Association, which represents nearly 1,900 members, has already started contacting Canadian organizations with an expertise in objective surveys and assessments, and plans to soon implement a process to learn how low morale really is, said union president Moe Sabourin in a letter addressed to Chief Danny Smyth.
Posted: Mar 04, 2021 8:36 PM CT | Last Updated: March 5
Winnipeg police Chief Danny Smyth said acknowledges there has been criticism of his leadership, but says the pandemic has made communication difficult with officers. (Trevor Brine/CBC)
The recent death of a police officer has pushed morale in the Winnipeg Police Service to what some officers describe as the worst they ve ever seen, and they blame the service s chief for allowing it to happen.
Numerous members of the service who spoke to CBC say the officer took his own life, in part, because he was profoundly shaken by the pressure and criticism brought on by the social movements to reform and defund police services.