Winnipeg business owner starts community patrol to help combat crime in neighbourhood
Posted July 8, 2026 5:55 pm.
Last Updated July 9, 2026 9:47 am.
A Winnipeg business owner has taken matters into his own hands. Co-owner of Cobra Collectibles, Michael Paille, has been suiting up for the past seven weeks, hitting the streets and doing his best to make a difference in his community.
“I feel it’s the right thing to do. I feel that if tomorrow it was better and I didn’t have to do it, I’d hang this up. Am I doing it because I want to? I’m doing it because we need it,” said Paille.
Paille has been operating his business on Sargent for the past 12 years, but says this year, crime in the neighbourhood has become more severe than in the past. So he started “Sargent Street Watch”.
He canvasses the streets from 8 a.m. till 5 p.m., six days a week, not enforcing the law, but lending a helping hand to anyone who might need one.
“I carry these with me. This is a list of all the places you can eat for free in the city if you’re hungry. I’ve got a list of shelters in here. I have a list of food banks as well. So, if somebody comes and says I’m new to the city, I don’t know where to go, I give them these. If somebody says I haven’t eaten in a day, here’s a place over here, I send them in the right direction,” Paille explained.
Now Paille tells us that over the past several weeks, he’s picked up around 400 needles on the street, and as you can see down here, this is just a small example of some of the drug paraphernalia he’s collected.
“Is it a solution? No. Does it help? Yes. Should I think more people should be doing this? I don’t know,” said Paille.
Although Paille puts a heavy emphasis on communicating with people and trying to de-escalate situations, it hasn’t been easy. Paille says he’s been assaulted twice. The first time he was struck in the face when offering water to a person and another time he was struck in the back of the neck with a two-by-four when administering Narcan to someone.
“You got to be careful, because when they come out of that, they don’t see it as the person who just saved their life. They see you as the person who just took their high away. So they will jump at you sometimes; they will be angry.”
CityNews reached out to the Winnipeg police, but has not heard back.
Paille says he helped up to 40 people with overdoses and that he’s had to call 911 close to 30 times.
He started out with a group of community members, but one by one, the group disbanded within the first week, leaving Paille to fight on his own, something that other local business owners appreciate.
“Michael is doing his best. But definitely he needs some help. Whichever department they can help him walk up and down, because for one person, it’s not easy,” said Paul Dhillon, a local business owner.
