Safety and security issues in Winnipeg's inner-city communities

Similar to Spence, many residents zations and improving the level of trust between were of the view that the community itself needs the community and the police. [...] They want sures on the police service to resolve all manner the police to work in partnership with the people, of societal problems—made worse by government businesses, and community-based organizations cutbacks in social services, and the shortage of jobs in Spence to remove or reduce the causes of crime, and other opportunities in the inner city—but and to undertake a more proactive, sophisticat [...] In the 2005 residents, businesspeople, and community work- State of the Inner-City Report,1 residents of three ers to determine: their perceptions of and experi- inner-city Winnipeg neighbourhoods—Spence, ences with safety and security in their respective Centennial, and Lord Selkirk Park—were inter- communities; the role of the police in responding viewed in order to identify strengths and proble [...] Four interviewers (three between inner-city residents and the police in of whom are of Aboriginal heritage and all of terms of their perceptions and interpretations of whom are now or have in the past been residents the role of the police in the inner city as well as in the communities being studied) were hired and prescriptions for resolving problems related to trained to conduct the interviews. [...] The role of the police is The increasing skepticism about the effective- expanded to enhance the community’s qual- ness of the traditional model’s ability to “fight ity of life; and crime,” coupled with a recognition that police on their own cannot solve crime and that communi- Decentralization: given the diversity ties also share in the responsibility for addressing of local communities, responsi