Though the media and police public relations officers work hard to inform Winnipeggers of crime incidents, there is still a handful of information that never reaches the public.

Gabrielle Giroday, Winnipeg Free Press crime and police reporter, says that with so many instances of crime, there is no way the media can report every occurrence.

“If you were to pick up every single website, newspaper, radio station and compare their crime coverage to the amount of calls police receive, I am not convinced that the amounts would match up,” she said.

For example, according to the 2009 Police Service Annual Report, 17,119 events for police service were reported. Of these events, 2,133 were considered criminal. Giroday explains that only a fraction of these are mentioned in the media.

“Are we reporting on all the domestic violence charges that go to short court every day? No,” she said. “We will report on some of them, but not all of them.”

Despite this, Giroday contends that public access to crime information is crucial.

“We have to get a full picture of what uses officers’ time and educate ourselves about what type of crime is likely to occur,” she said.

When the media is not enough, organizations like Winnipeg CrimeStat, a government-run website dedicated to reporting crime statistics, work to improve police accountability and crime transparency.

Terry Kolbuck, public information assistant for Winnipeg Police Service, says the website has changed the way people think about crime.

“(Before CrimeStat existed) the public would obtain information on crime through the media, as well as (through) various levels of government and crime statistics organizations,” she said.

According to its website, when CrimeStat first launched in February 2007, the site offered public access to statistical charts on homicide, robbery, sexual assault, vehicle theft and break and enter. In March of the same year, the site switched to maps that showed where in the city specific instances of crime occur.

However, in an effort to protect victims, the site does not publish exact crime occurrence locations – only approximate locations.

Giroday believes it is important for reporters to approach crime reporting with open minds.

“I don’t think you should step into an interview knowing exactly what (you) are going to get out of it because that shuts out areas for learning,” she said. “I’ve been in interviews for 45 minutes where, at the last minute, you learn something that blows everything else out of the water.”

This is part of the Crime in Winnipeg feature. Its companion pieces are “Perception of crime far from reality” by Brittany Thiessen (http://uniter.ca/view/6251/) and “Police forced to play too large a role in mental health services” by Nicole Chammartin (http://uniter.ca/view/6252/) .

Published in Volume 65, Number 25 of The Uniter (March 31, 2011)