An application for grant funding has been submitted to the province to help bolster efforts in addressing calls to the Windsor Police Service involving mental health and addictions.
The service has applied for a Mobile Crisis Response Team (MCRT) Enhancement Grant being offered by the Ministry of the Solicitor General, with a maximum of $360,000 available over three years.
The goal of the grant is to enhance existing MCRTs by helping meet the need for more mental health assistance on calls for service by leveraging local mental health expertise.
Windsor Police Inspector Jennifer Crosby says the teams have already been doing some good work in the community.
"We always try to leverage any available funding that we have through the province for any enhancements we can make to the team," she says. "That is what this grant is all about—making enhancements as far as adding additional social workers to the team to cover any vacancies—that type of thing."
In late May, the Windsor Police Service and Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare announced the creation of the Crisis Response Team (CRT), which will continue pairing frontline police officers with social workers who have expertise in mental health and de-escalation techniques.
The CRT replaces the Mobile Crisis Rapid Response Team (MCRRT) and the Community Outreach and Support Team (COAST).
The CRT has also increased operations from five days to seven days per week, from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m., providing overlap coverage during peak hours and reducing the number of calls to which patrol units must respond.
Crosby says the teams are busy, as any calls for service where they can attend that meet their mandate, they are the first ones to attend.
"That's what we want; that's the purpose of the crisis response team and the nurse-police team—to have the subject matter experts there. It's not only the police officer; it's the crisis worker, and it's the nurse," she says.
In 2023, Windsor Police responded to more than 3,078 calls for service involving people in crisis—an 11.3% increase over the previous year.
The crisis response team is a key element of the city's $3.2 million Strengthen the Core Plan, which is aimed at revitalizing and improving safety in downtown Windsor.