Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz met publicly Monday with police officers involved in the "Operation Clean Sweep" program, which targets street crime in the city's West End neighbourhood.

For the three months since its launch, Winnipeg police have been fairly closed-lipped about Operation Clean Sweep, limiting their comments to monthly news statements of arrest statistics.

On Monday, Mayor Katz said he wanted to hear from the officers directly involved in the operation – and he invited reporters along to shine a spotlight on the program.

The six officers at the meeting seemed nervous at first, apparently not expecting the media throng and wall of television cameras that greeted them in the West End coffee shop.

But they loosened up as the meeting went on, and began offering suggestions to Katz to improve the program.

"I thought it was very refreshing to get an opportunity to sit down with the mayor of our city and have a dialogue with him, and allow our members that are out working [to do so]," said Staff Sgt. Bob Irwin, who is a member of the 45-officer Clean Sweep unit.

Provincial, federal support needed

Katz says he didn't hear anything unexpected from the officers, but that the meeting was valuable. He says he knows Clean Sweep is working because many people are trying to take credit for the idea.

"I also heard how emphatically the officers believe in Clean Sweep, how they believe that they can have a serious impact on crime in our city, whether it's against property or people, how they can do policing better that way," he said. "They can do what they're meant to do."

Between the operation's launch on Nov. 21 and the end of 2005, police say Operation Clean Sweep has resulted in more than 400 arrests and 288 Criminal Code charges laid.

Katz said a long-term commitment to the program is needed, and for that, he'll need support from the provincial and federal governments.