Mike Sutherland, president of Winnipeg's police union, said Friday that officers support Mayor Sam Katz's pledge to bolster their ranks as part of an anti-gang strategy.Mike Sutherland, president of Winnipeg's police union, said Friday that officers support Mayor Sam Katz's pledge to bolster their ranks as part of an anti-gang strategy. (CBC)

The union representing Winnipeg's police officers is again declaring support for incumbent Mayor Sam Katz in his re-election bid — this time in the belief that his promise to hire more officers will bolster the city's war on gangs.

Winnipeg Police Association (WPA) president Mike Sutherland said Friday that Katz's promise to devote 20 new officers to a unit to keep gang activity in check will increase public safety.

The officers would track and monitor 50 of Winnipeg's top gang members in an effort to keep them off the streets. Sutherland said over time, people would get the message that gang life is a dead end.

"For those that are even entertaining the thought of maybe joining a gang — once they see that that gangster goes back to jail every time they screw up when they're out, maybe they [give it] a second thought," he told CBC.

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The Winnipeg Police Association says 20 new officers will help curb gang-activity.
The gang crackdown would be modelled after a made-in-Manitoba anti-auto-theft strategy that combines the efforts of police, probation officers and prosecutors to monitor the city's top teenaged car thieves.

Since its inception in 2005, the Winnipeg Auto Theft Suppression Strategy has been credited with dramatic reductions in auto theft in the city.

The WPA's backing of Katz's anti-gang plan is its second public declaration of support for the current mayor, who is in a tight race for the city's top political seat with former NDP MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis.

Results of a Probe Research-Winnipeg Free Press poll released Saturday suggested the two front-runners are in a statistical dead heat in the mayoral race. Winnipeggers go to the polls on Oct. 27.

Sutherland said the WPA consulted with Wasylycia-Leis, but she didn't make specific commitments for additional police resources.

Katz's public promise for more police resources has come as good news for officers.

"This mayor has made some specific commitments in a public fashion and when you talk about accountability in a public level [it's] pretty tough to move away from those commitments," Sutherland said.