Police Chief Danny Smyth says the Winnipeg Police Service is making a number of changes to staffing to help deal with violent crime in the city.

"Our community is reeling, really, and our organization is reeling," Smyth said as he opened a press conference on Friday morning. "A lot of people can't just make sense of what's going on right now in the community. The level of violence, the level of property crime - it's bad. It's alarming for all of us." Smyth says that Winnipeg's crime rate is high above the rate in other Canadian cities.

Smyth says that every category of crime has gone up in Winnipeg, and every area of the city has been victim to what he called "lawlessness."

Smyth says he and the rest of the police force know that the public is worried and that they want solutions. Smyth says, as a result, adjustments will be made to the Major Crimes Unit, Station Duty, Traffic Unit, and the Community Relations Division.

More general and foot patrol, but district stations closing

"This realignment will mean more members in general patrol and investigative units. To accomplish this, service will be reduced in other areas and will impact some services we provide to the public," the WPS said in a release.

Station duty officers are being reassigned to general patrol, which means the police stations in the East, West, and North End will be temporarily closed to the public. Members of the public that would normally report a crime at those district stations will now be directed to go to police headquarters downtown. There will also be a reduction in traffic enforcement and public education.

"These changes, I think, are necessary," Smyth said. He said the moves are important in taking care of officers' health, as well as reducing the backlog of files.

Smyth says a reorganization of policing like this has never been done so quickly. He says that usually changes like this would take place over months or even years. Instead, this change took place in just over a week's time.

"We have never had this many homicides in such a short period of time," Smyth said, noting that there were 11 homicides over the past month or so.

Smyth admitted to reporters that even he is beginning to struggle with the weight of recent events. He says recently he's had more bad days than good, which is not a normal outlook for him.

He stressed that the changes are temporary and the WPS will likely reevaluate early in the new year.