Windsor's police chief calls Police Week a great chance to 'connect with the community.'
The Windsor Police Service, along with the Ontario Provincial Police, LaSalle Police, and the Canada Border Services Agency, has several displays set up inside Devonshire Mall in Windsor as part of Police Week.
Windsor Police Chief Jason Crowley says connecting with the community and building trust is so important to what they do.
"We rely on the public not only for support but also for their help. We're always asking the community for information or video. But it's also that they can expect police to do police things. If the community's expectations can't be filled, we have a problem,' he says.
This year's theme, "Protecting Ontario Through Service," recognizes the contributions of police officers and those working in law enforcement who help keep our community safe.
Crowley says being out during Police Week is so important to show what they do.
"The public can come and see the equipment that we have and the tools that we use for public safety," he says. "Then on top of that, we can explain to them why we do it. How it works and why we have these tools. It all comes down to public safety."
Crowley says policing has changed so much since he just started to become 'a little bit of everything to everybody.'
"A lot of our calls for service are not police-related. When we talk about mental health, drug addiction, and homelessness, this is part of what we do now," he says. "This is just the role of policing. That is one of the biggest changes, but we still have our core function of policing, crime prevention, and public safety, things like that."
You can see the displays and interact with local law enforcement agencies at Devonshire Mall on Friday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.