The Windsor Police Service is reporting a notable decrease in the number of collisions or damage involving the service's marked and unmarked vehicles.
In 2023, there were 34 collisions recorded plus another three occurrences resulting in damage.
The cost to the service was $216,514 with three incidents involving a total loss of the vehicle, amounting to $62,657 or 29 per cent of the total dollar figure.
The 37 incidents recorded is down from the 45 in 2022.
The service has been working to reduce the number of collisions after seeing a spike between 2019 and 2021.
Over 60 collisions or damage incidents were recorded in each of those three years, costing the service $704,809 including the loss of 20 vehicles during that time frame.
Deputy Chief Jason Crowley says officers have a lot of distractions on the road especially when they're responding to a call.
"A lot of things that they have to be aware of one the way to a call, listening to a dispatcher, if they have an officer with them they are relaying information off a computer. So a lot of distractions," he says.
A report delivered to the Windsor Police Services Board tracking collisions and damage involving Windsor police vehicles. Feb. 1, 2024 (Photo: Windsor Police Service)
Crowley says they have monthly meetings with frontline supervisors as part of their effort.
"We can't help people if we don't arrive at a call. If an officer does not arrive at a call, we're useless to the community," he says. "We've tried to stress that to our supervision and put it down to the front lines. Clearly it's working, the message is being received."
As part of the effort to reduce damage and collisions, the service has been utilizing Safe Arrival data to examine and ensure officers are responding to calls in a safe and timely manner, while also reviewing situations to see if additional training or corrective actions are need.
Crowley says it can be a burden on the taxpayers with the number of accidents, repairing the vehicles or even injuries to officers or civilians.
"This is something that we're always concerned about, it's a priority for us, it always has been. Now with the data, analytics, to be able to really drill down and show our frontline supervisors, 'hey, this is what's going on.' They've done a great job relaying that message and so far, so good," he adds.
The service does note that while the financial impact realized has increased, this was heavily influenced by increased pricing overall for parts and labour triggered by high inflation.
A report delivered to the Windsor Police Services Board tracking collisions and damage involving Windsor police vehicles. Feb. 1, 2024 (Photo: Windsor Police Service)