The City of Windsor and County of Essex are joining forces to battle crime across the region.
The Community Safety and Wellbeing Regional Plan will pool resources from all local municipalities for a collaborative and integrated crime prevention strategy.
The city's Community Development and Health Commissioner Jelena Payne says the province has legislated the plan which must be in place by January 1, 2021.
She says taking a regional approach is the best way to go.
"Recognizing that many of the players who are involved in the development of a Community Safety and Wellbeing Plan such as our health unit, our school boards, our hospitals, police departments, recognizing that many of those services are regional in nature. It only made sense to approach it from that perspective," say Payne.
She says the unique needs to each municipality will be addressed as the regional plan will tackle some of the systemic issues in the region.
Windsor's Community Development and Health Commissioner Jelena Payne seen on November 18, 2019 (Photo by AM800's Zander Broeckel)
The plan has been in the works for several years.
"It's something that the province has been looking at for many years," says Payne. "They've done a number of community safety and wellbeing crime prevention-type reports. It's a considerable amount of work, a lot of consultation has to go into this. City council, they've endorsed it, now we're waiting on county council to endorse it."
The city is putting $200,000 toward the plan and is asking the county to do the same.
Essex County Council will discuss the matter at its Wednesday night meeting.