The city councillor for downtown is reacting to a new report that Windsor saw a drop in crime severity last year, while the country as a whole saw an increase for the second consecutive year.
Statistics Canada published its 2022 Crime Severity Index (CSI) last Thursday, showing Windsor saw an 11 per cent drop, while Canada’s rose four per cent.
According to the Windsor Police Service, Windsor and Amherstburg saw a 9.6 per cent decrease in violent crime and a 16.3 per cent drop in non-violent crime year over year.
Speaking on AM800's Live and Local, ward 3 councillor Renaldo Agostino says there's been some rhetoric that Detroit is safer than Windsor, which he states is simply not true.
"I spent the day in Detroit at a panel, the other day, listening to some speakers and the issues that they have are far far worse than the issues we're dealing with. But we're still dealing with issues. I think I've been saying it for a while. There's a difference between some of the problems we suffer from, especially downtown, that shouldn't always be grouped together."
He says there are a number of initiatives taking place to improve the issues we're facing, including the partnership between Windsor Police Service and nurses from Windsor Regional Hospital.
"I think the biggest thing that's happening for our downtown, and I know the mayor touched on a little bit this week with Dan, is that we started a program, or looking for direction with Strategy Corp where we're a building a real comprehensive plan for downtown Windsor. It's going to be a really inclusive plan. We want to talk to everyone."
Speaking on AM800's The Morning Drive last week, Mayor Drew Dilkens said we should soon learn more about the city's plan to improve safety and security downtown.
The city has hired Strategy Corp to develop a safety plan with a full public consultation to be done.
Dilkens also said the police board has unanimously approved and work is underway to develop a real time crime centre, like they have in Detroit.
The Detroit high-tech central command centre is staffed 24-hours a day and has access to a combination of technologies, such as live cameras feeds, automated license plate readers, gunshot detection, social media monitoring, and access to a variety of databases to provide information.
Agostino says when it comes to downtown, we're starting to see a good mix of people out and about which is helping.
"We're starting to see gains in so many different and to see a report like this come out is another postive step for our city and for our downtown."
The crime rate in Windsor has risen slightly, by one per cent.
The country’s overall crime rate jumped five per cent in 2022.
-With files from AM800's Live and Local w/ guest host Jon Liedtke and CTV Windsor