Brandon Police Service reports healthy staff levels

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This article was published 06/01/2022 (1539 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Police Service has declared a state of emergency in its efforts to deal with a staffing shortage caused by a spike in COVID-19 cases.

City police reported 90 active cases among staff, as of Wednesday, and said the service was trying to fill in the gaps as 170 employees were off on coronavirus-related leave.

General patrol has been hit hard by the increase in pandemic cases, the WPS said. Staff were being brought in from other areas to make sure enough officers were available to respond to daily calls for service.

“We have some real challenges ahead,” said WPS Chief Danny Smyth. “The current COVID-19 situation has significantly impacted our staffing resources. It has become necessary to execute parts of our business continuity plan to ensure essential services — particularly in general patrol.”

The police executive had designated 80 more officers to be assigned to general patrol, starting Monday. Additional officers will be redeployed from other areas to fill in on short notice, the WPS said in a news release.

If further staff go on COVID-related leave, WPS said it will consider redeploying additional personnel or restructuring its shift model to cope with any shortage.

Winnipeg’s police chief has the authority to declare a state of emergency under the service’s collective agreement.

In Brandon, city manager Ron Bowles told the sun on Wednesday that while there have been some COVID-19 related absences, they haven’t affected operations at the city or caused it to be unable to deliver some services.

“Brandon is doing very well,” Bowles said. “I can say that with confidence because we just had a meeting of all the department heads yesterday. There are of course pockets of areas that have had a few people at home with a kid that’s tested positive or have been in close contact, so we’ve had some absenteeism, but it’s at a very manageable level at this point.

“Notwithstanding, we are analyzing what-if scenarios with what’s happening with omicron in other jurisdictions around the world and just sort of planning for being able to provide our critical services.”

He added that representatives from Brandon Fire and Emergency Services as well as the Brandon Police Service were present at this meeting.

Later Wednesday afternoon, BPS Chief Wayne Balcaen confirmed via email what Bowles had said.

“We have not had the same impact that WPS is presently experiencing although we presently do have staff off ill and or isolating due to COVID-19,” Balcaen wrote. “We have emergency plans in place that look at minimum staffing levels should we need to re-deploy staffing to ensure front line responses are maintained. It is my hope that we do not have to resort to these plans as our service continues to follow all public health guidelines.”

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