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![\"MIKE](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/4519684_web1_260806-drug-enforcement-0058.jpg\")
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MIKE DEAL \/ FREE PRESS FILES<\/p>\n
Winnipeg Police Service Chief Gene Bowers announced last week the WPS is ending special duty hours.<\/p>\n
You look around. Has something happened?<\/p>\n
\u201cIs there a problem, officer?\u201d<\/p>\n
No, it\u2019s just police officers making overtime pay by standing in stores and filling other roles at special events, and in the process, building up their pensionable time.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s called special duty hours, and it\u2019s probably a heck of a lot more straightforward and non-threatening than heading to a call in a police cruiser.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also coming to an end, at least as far as working in retail stores is concerned.<\/p>\n
The number of WPS hours a retailer can book will be reduced by 50 per cent before a \u201cfull exit\u201d May 1, 2027.<\/p>\n
It was quite a thing: a Free Press analysis found more than 50,000 special duty hours booked per year. Hourly fees range from $141.75 (GST included) for a constable to $166.95 for a staff sergeant. The money collected for the shifts is paid to the officer minus the costs of operating the program.<\/p>\n
The officers aren\u2019t even doing security work.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re just there in case they are needed for on-site police work \u2014 something that\u2019s led to the snide description of the program as \u201ccops as props.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s going away because officers working at the grocery store aren\u2019t available to fill gaps in staffing at the police department.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow this would affect the service is if we have shortages on our front lines, we often (ask) people to work overtime shifts, and often we\u2019ve been recently unable to fill some of those required shifts to make sure we\u2019re meeting our minimum strength on the street,\u201d Winnipeg Police Service Chief Gene Bowers told the Free Press.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel the amount of retail special duty has had a significant impact on our ability to fill those days where we need those members to fill those cruiser cars.\u201d<\/p>\n
You can understand both sides. Police officers probably like the idea of a calmer shift getting them both pay and a bump for their pensions.<\/p>\n
But the police chief has only so many resources, and it must be difficult to be unable to staff cruisers while fully-trained officers are standing around listening to canned music and scoping out good offers in the nearby produce section.<\/p>\n
Think of it this way: Your own time is your own time, but if your side gig as a night-time dance bar DJ means you can\u2019t ever take overtime shifts or cover for other employees \u2014 and you\u2019re too tired from your freelance work to handle everything at your day job \u2014 your employer is going to have some issues.<\/p>\n
The final analysis is a simple one \u2014 if special duty hours make it difficult to fill gaps on the street, the program has to go.<\/p>\n
\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n
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For retailers, losing the officers will mean changes to their security plans.<\/p>\n
Instead of calling the police when store security catches a shoplifter, the police were already there, front and centre.<\/p>\n
It probably won\u2019t be a popular decision with rank and file police officers.<\/p>\n
But managing isn\u2019t a popularity contest.<\/p>\n
And Chief Bowers\u2019 first responsibility is to Winnipeggers, not just retailers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019re not from Winnipeg, the first time you see it can be a little alarming. You\u2019ve come…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-194459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}