A newly released report from Statistics Canada shows Windsor's Crime Severity Index is up 7% from 2016 to 2017.
StatsCan shows Windsor's score at 71.7 — below the national average of 72.9.
It's the third straight year the index has seen an increase in Windsor — an 8.8% increase in 2015 and 7.21% increase in 2016 — after an 11-year downward trend.
More than half of Canada's census metropolitan areas saw increases in the Crime Severity Index.
Mayor and Windsor Police Board Chair Drew Dilkens says the recent upward trend in crime severity needs to be studied.
"Any increase for us, makes us look and pause and think about what we can do to drive the number down," says Dilkens.
He says the city has already taken steps after identifying concerning trends.
"There were reasons why we supported hiring 12 additional officers — and we saw an increase in property crime, we saw an increase in violent crime and we wanted to address that before it gets out of control," says Dilkens.
The cost to hire the additional officers was $1.4-million to serve the downtown core primarily.
Dilkens sees more officers as a part of the answer.
"I think it's an element of it and so you certainly want to unpack the data and understand what's driving the numbers and what's driving the increase but, certainly having additional officers on the street is always very, very helpful," says Dilkens.
Despite the upward trend in crime severity numbers, Dilkens doesn't feel Windsor is becoming a dangerous place to live by any means.
"I mean, at the end of the day, I think if you just look across the river and see and compare ourselves with other cities — you see what's happening in cities like Toronto, you see what's happening in other big cities — I think relatively speaking, we're still a very, very safe community. I pride myself on the fact that I live in a very safe community and everyone should as well."
Windsor's CSI factors in a more more than 12% jump in the Violent Crime Severity Index for 2017.