Winnipeg police chief Danny Smyth speaks to the media in Winnipeg, Thursday, December 1, 2022. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods)
Winnipeg’s crime rate increased by more than 25 percent in 2022, with violent crime reaching its highest level since 2009.
The unsettling data was released Tuesday by Winnipeg police in their 2022 statistical report.
Last year, the city saw a record number of homicides at 53, while knife-related crimes increased by more than 12 percent compared to 2021. The use of bear spray in violent crimes has also doubled since 2019.
“As we came out of the pandemic in 2022, we returned to some sense of normalcy as we returned to work, schools reopened, mask mandates were scaled back, organized sports returned, and businesses started to thrive again,” said WPS Chief Danny Smyth.
“However, crime rates, which had dropped during the pandemic, also returned to higher-than-normal levels. In the coming years, the challenge will be to determine and make sense of how this environment impacted people, crime trends, and police-related calls for service.”
Property crime was also up 32 percent, while youth crime increased by 43 percent.
The full report can be found below:
WPS Annual Report 2022 by ChrisDca on Scribd
