Windsor police say they are seeing fewer retail thefts in the city since beginning a new initiative.
Last July, the service assigned a full-time retail theft coordinator to help streamline shopping investigations, track repeat offenders, and offer support to prevent future incidents.
Deputy Chief Jason Crowley says police have seen 528 shoplifting related incidents since the coordinator began their job.
"A 34 per cent improvement over the previous year [2023], so we've identified, and cleared it with either a charge or at least identified somebody for the theft," Crowley said. "Nearly 45 per cent of these suspects are repeat offenders."
The initiative has netted 192 arrests since it began less than a year ago. So far this year, there has been a 33 per cent drop in shoplifting incidents reported to police.
Crowley says police have identified a national effort of organized groups who are studying retail targets that they consider easy.
"So we are always encouraging our retailers, especially local ones, if there's any target hardening they can do of their properties or their businesses, we always encourage that, we certainly would never encourage to be hands-on with someone, that's our job," he said.
Police also shared a 95 per cent compliance rate from retailers through the online crime reporting tool. That’s up from 79 per cent.
Crowley asked all retailers to install cameras.
"Cameras are relatively inexpensive now that qaulity is much better than it used to be, and they're a lot more stealth like to put them in your store if you can that would be great, it helps us," Crowley said. "Certainly we do get a lot of people calling Crime Stoppers, or calling our Major Crime Unit to help us out when we ask."
Crowley says the service has strengthened its relationships with both the Retail Council of Canada and Windsor business community while working closely with other police services to target organized theft rings operating in various jurisdictions.