WINDSOR — The newest member of the Windsor Police Services Board believes diversifying the police force to better represent the community is one of its biggest challenges.
Denise Ghanam, a retired Human Resources consultant, took her Oath of Office Monday morning as a provincially-appointed board member.
Ghanam says Windsor police have done a great job keeping the crime rate low and she believes most people feel safe in the city.
Keeping that up with tightening budgets will be another challenge moving forward.
"I think we have had good success in keeping our crime rates under control. Windsor is a safe city," she says. "I go elsewhere travelling around and there are places sometimes where you are not comfortable to walk on the street at night and that's not the case here."
Windsor is one of the only major cities in Ontario where its officers are not equipped with Naloxone, the life-saving drug that reverses the effects of an overdose.
For now, she says she doesn't have an opinion, one way or the other.
"I don't have enough background information to really answer that question effectively, so I'm going to defer at this point to the judgment of the police services here," she says. "Perhaps down the road my opinion may change but I know it is a difficult and challenging situation, we have had a lot of issues with overdose."