Retail crime continues to be a top-of-mind issue for law enforcement and business owners in Winnipeg, but the rest of the province is feeling the effects as well.
Brandon, Man., police chief Tyler Bates says local police have been working on the problem — with over 50 arrests made and $10,000 in property recovered in a recent crackdown.
Bates said in his opinion, the best solution for the long-term would be a more proactive approach from police.
“I certainly don’t want to sit back and reactively deal with a police service that is just responding to call after call in the downtown district,” he said, “where 30 per cent of our calls continue to be within a small radius.
“I’d rather look at what efforts we could collectively invest from a prevention standpoint.”
Bates said law enforcement in Manitoba’s second-largest city should be addressing root causes, but also learning from the provincial capital as far as what works and what doesn’t in the fight against theft and other retail crime.
“I would say that Winnipeg is the canary in the coal mine if you will,” he said.
“When we see trends that are emerging in Winnipeg, it speaks to us here in Brandon as to the steps we need to take so that we don’t mirror that pattern of activities.”
According to Brandon Mayor Jeff Fawcett, the issue in the Wheat City isn’t that there’s an excess of offenders, but rather it’s multiple incidents caused by the same few people.”
“We have a lot of repeat — that is a big piece of what we have, it’s the same people causing the same problems,” Fawcett said.
“It’s not even necessarily violent things, it’s just this repeated theft… and the fact that the businesses are having to buy security, and there’s different levels of security if you get into that.”
Fawcett said Brandon’s police force is looking for more support from the province to help curb retail theft and that city officials are hoping the Manitoba government can match the supports it has set up in Winnipeg to address the issue.
Brandon’s retail theft initiative, which began earlier in 2025, received funding up to March of this year.
More police on foot patrol thanks to retail theft initiative
