Winnipeg Police Chief Danny Smyth says the city's police service is exhausted.

He says dealing with a spike in homicides and the meth crisis has pushed his officers to the limit.

Smyth says the police are just barely holding things together right now and it is really having a strain on the community.

He says the police service will be shoring up its homicide unit by adding a third shift and more resources will be moved to other front-line units.

Smyth says to do this, police will have to reduce service in other areas, but wouldn't specify where.

The City of Winnipeg has been rocked by violent crime in 2019, including a near-record number of homicides. The most-ever homicides in one year came in 2011 when there were 41 homicides. There are now 40 homicides in Winnipeg so far in 2019.

A day of prayer for the City of Winnipeg

Listen to CHVN 95.1 FM all day on Friday, November 7 as we host a special day of prayer for the City of Winnipeg.

We will be joined throughout the day by pastors, ministry leaders, and musicians. We'll pray together, we'll talk together, we'll sing together, we'll confess and repent together. And together we will declare that God is the God of this city.

How you can participate:

  • The first is obvious: listen and pray. We'll begin at 6:30 a.m. and continue with a different guest each hour.
  • You can record short voice memos on your phone with your own prayer and email them to dj@chvnradio.com (try and keep prayers under 30 seconds)
  • You can call and leave a message with your prayer, a verse that you want to share, or stories of hope. Call 1.877.951.2486
  • Again, please share and spread the word. We can literally gather hundreds of thousands of people throughout Manitoba on Friday and pray together.