The councillor for Ward 1 in Windsor wants to know how the City can better support Windsor Police to address their ongoing issuesÂ
On Monday night, Windsor Police Chief Jason Bellaire delivered his annual report for 2022 to council, spoke about the challenges facing the service and the need for a more robust response to what's happening.
Once Bellaire had concluded, Fred Francis then put forward a motion asking administration for a status report on what gaps currently exist for police based on the information the Chief had brought to council.
It would include not only what the City itself could do, but also community partners and the Ministry of Health.
Francis says when police are telling them that their calls for service continue to be driven around mental health, homelessness and addiction related issues, it's incumbent on council to try and help them find solutions.
That's because as Chief Bellaire has been saying since taking over the top job, police are not the subject matter experts for those issues.
"If there are community partners out there that want to do more, can do more, I think the onus is on the City to be the leader in that space and get everybody together. Figure out who's doing what, who can do more, who wants to get involved and to provide that coordination so we provide police with the help that they're asking for," he said.
Francis says these issues are not only affecting the downtown core anymore, they're city-wide.
He believes that people want to help, want to see crime go down, and want to see the people struggling get the help that they need, which is why he's calling for a coordinated strategy to more effectively deal with what's happening.
"When I hear the Police Chief saying ok, we're doing everything we could possibly do but we need help because we are not the mental health experts, we are not the drug addiction experts," Francis continued. "So we have to engage the entire community, all those experts in those respective fields, we have to get everyone because it's all hands on deck."
Francis says these are very complicated issues that require a different way of thinking and approach, because things have changed so drastically that what worked in 2015 probably doesn't in 2023.
He says there's different levels to dealing with the issues, from the Ministry of Health down to local agencies or organizations, and they need to figure out how to best support local police.
"In matters that are really, really complicated, in my experience, the best thing to do is bring all of the stakeholders to the table and say OK, this is the problem, these are the issues, what can we do? Then you start putting together a plan, a strategic plan, on how to deal with the issues and provide the assistance to people who need help."
Francis is hoping that the report can be completed and delivered to council sometime in June, so they can try to iron out some sort of framework or plan which he believes would have lots of support around the council table.