Sarah Esperanza owns and operates El Izalco Market on Sargent Avenue in Winnipeg. She experiences theft almost every day and says she can't afford to hire special duty police officers like big-box stores such as Real Canadian Superstore or Walmart.
One of Canada's largest retailers is spending more than $200,000 a month hiring Winnipeg police officers to protect its business, an increase police and experts say points to the growing crisis of retail theft in the city.Sarah Esperanza owns and operates El Izalco Market on Sargent Avenue. She experiences theft almost every day and says she can't afford to hire special duty police officers like big-box stores such as Real Canadian Superstore or Walmart.
"What can we do?" said Esperanza, who has owned El Izalco Market for 24 years after moving from El Salvador to Canada. CBC obtained the monthly list of clients that hire special duty police officers and how many hours the officers work for them each month. Walmart started using special duty officers at its Winnipeg stores in 2022, costing the U.S.-based mega-retailer $1.4 million. It is spending, on average, roughly $52,000 each month for the officers.
Since January 2019, Winnipeg police officers have worked more than 222,000 hours of overtime — costing the private sector over $20 million. Over 43 per cent of those hours were at Superstore locations. Winnipeg police say the growing use by big-box retailers is indicative of what's happening across the province right now.
McKinnon said often organized groups go into stores and take large amounts of high-value items, similar to what happened at Liquor Marts in 2019. A spokesperson for Loblaw said the use of these officers at select Winnipeg stores has been effective. A spokesperson for Walmart Canada declined to disclose any details about using these officers, but said they employ a variety of measures to prevent retail crime.Other clients who use special duty officers include companies such as True North, which hires them to provide security at hockey games, and public entities such as the City of Winnipeg and government of Manitoba.
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