The City of Winnipeg is divided into 15 Electoral Wards – each represented by a city councillor.
Councillor Harvey Smith who represents the Daniel McIntyre Ward is quoted in today’s Free Press as saying the crime wave in Winnipeg this weekend spilled over into his constituency. The Daniel McIntyre Ward which is situated within the boundaries of Police District 1 (the downtown district) is one of the smallest wards geographically but is surpassed only by the Mynarski Ward in terms of the numbers of crimes tracked by Crimestat.
The following table breaks down reported crime by electoral ward for the period from January 1st 2010 to October 29th 2011.
Ward | Councillor | Jan 1-Oct 29 2011 | Jan 1 –Oct 29 2010 | % change |
Mynarski | Ross Eadie | 1162 | 1538 | -24 |
Daniel McIntyre | Harvey Smith | 1137 | 1141 | 0 |
Point Douglas | Mike Pagtakhan | 951 | 1139 | -17 |
Fort Rouge-Fort Garry | Jenny Gerbasi | 759 | 876 | -13 |
St. James-Brooklands | Scott Fielding | 605 | 779 | -22 |
Elmwood-East Kildonan | Thomas Steen | 597 | 876 | -13 |
River Heights-Fort Garry | John Orlikow | 444 | 599 | -26 |
St. Boniface | Daniel Vandal | 406 | 533 | -22 |
St. Vital | Vacant | 316 | 537 | -37 |
Old Kildonan | Devi Sharma | 269 | 443 | -39 |
Transcona | Russ Wyatt | 256 | 249 | +3 |
St. Charles | Grant Nordman | 249 | 244 | +2 |
North Kildonan | Jeff Browaty | 243 | 368 | -34 |
St. Norbert | Justin Swandel | 237 | 377 | -37 |
Charleswood-Tuxedo | Paula Havixbeck | 167 | 207 | -19 |
(source: Winnipeg Police Crimestat)
The Daniel McIntyre Ward is one of only three wards that has not seen crime go down so far this year. One could argue that crime is not spilling into the Daniel McIntyre ward from adjoining wards but rather that crime is spilling out into adjacent wards.
Below is a crime map which depicts crimes in Daniel McIntyre Ward between Jan 1st. 2011 and Oct 29th 2011.
News flash for Councillor Smith: What happened in Daniel McIntyre Ward this past weekend cannot be explained away as ‘spillover’. To do so is to turn a blind eye to the realities of the crime problem that has existed in the Daniel McIntyre ward for some time now. Nothing new here, Councillor Smith.