Police board extends Smyth’s contract until at least 2023

WINNIPEG (CityNews) – Winnipeg Police Chief Danny Smyth has been given a vote of confidence by the police board as his contract has been extended for two years.

Smyth’s contract is now extended to Nov. 30, 2023.

The new deal for Smyth comes amid rising concern over morale within the WPS.

“Between the pandemic and some of the ‘defund the police’ and some of the other social movements, it is having an impact on our work environment,” Smyth said.

He added that an external review should provide more direction in the coming months.

Smyth’s leadership has been called into question by the union representing his members but it was praised Friday by police board member Damon Johnston, also the head of the Aboriginal Council of Winnipeg.

“He’s already demonstrated that he knows how to work with our people, he knows how to intervene and de-escalate all kinds of situation and that’s a powerful, powerful way to do things,” Johnston said.

Smyth also committed to further exploring the potential of body cameras for WPS members hoping to build on learning from cities like Calgary and Vancouver.

“We certainly have their experience to province us the roadmap going forward and also provide us with a projection of what kind of costs we would be expecting as we go down that path.”

Meanwhile, if your nights have seemed quieter lately AIR1 has been grounded for maintenance.

“The aircraft has been down now for several weeks now and I expect it will be out of commission at least until the end of May,” Smyth said.

The cost of the work is estimated to reach around $600,000 and is a scheduled requirement to ensure the chopper is certified to fly.

The impact of the pandemic on the police budget as the shortfall is estimated to be around $3 million driven mostly by a decrease in revenues associated with traffic tickets.