Union calls for improvements to court security

The union representing sheriff's officers has asked Manitoba Justice to review safety protocols at the Winnipeg Law Courts following a couple of recent incidents.

Last week, a sheriff's officer's car was set on fire in front of his St. Boniface home.

Two weeks earlier, the officer had been involved in restraining two alleged gang members during a disturbance, while the men were being transported back to Stony Mountain Institution. The men allegedly threatened the officers, saying they knew where they lived.

Winnipeg Police and Manitoba Justice both stress there is no proof the incidents are connected.

Blaine Duncan, health and safety officer with the Manitoba Government Employees Union, says incidents like these remind officers of the dangers of their jobs.

"The nature of law professions, law-enforcement professions, obviously have some rollover into people's personal lives as well," he says.

"From our perspective, we want the employer to consider workplace safety and health issues as they arise in the workplace, as well as those issues that do roll over into the personal lives of these individuals in these professions."

Debbie Baker, executive director of the Winnipeg Courts Complex, acknowledges that there sometimes are incidents that cause court staff to review security procedures at the law courts.

"We're taking any situations where there's a safety concern, or a threat, or an action against a staff, very seriously," she says.

Baker says steps have been taken in the past few years to make the job safer for sheriff's officers. She wouldn't reveal what the changes were, saying that would defeat the purpose of making them.