"More outreach workers are needed to get addicts off the street."
The city councillor for downtown Windsor said increasing crime in the core and increased calls for more police patrols should serve as a wake-up call that more needs to be done to address mental health and drug addiction issues.
Windsor Police Chief Al Frederick told reporters last week that calls in the core are on the rise and 80 per cent of them are non-criminal calls such as suicidal and homeless people which take many officers away from their patrols for several hours.
Ward 3 Councillor Rino Bortolin said more effort is needed to reduce the 80 per cent.
"When you see residents getting to the point where they are so fed up that they are about to patrol the streets at 3 a.m. themselves, we are getting to the point where it's a serious situation," said Bortolin.
A downtown bar owner posted on Facebook last week how fed up he is with the rash of thefts from parked vehicles in the University Avenue and Victoria Avenue area over the past few months and has started his own late-night patrols to curb crime in the area.
Bortolin questions why police officers are responding to non-criminal calls.
"Let's come up with a plan that's unique and different and doesn't deploy police resources to calls that are not crime-related, so the police are actually free to deal with the crime that's happening," he said.
Chief Frederick said he had not seen a model yet that adequately deals with addictions and mental health that he can fully support and recommend.
Bortolin said what the city is doing is not enough and citizens are frustrated and scared.
"The theft and petty crime is commonplace, it's daily. I have people who leave their cars and garages open because they no longer want to deal with smashed doors and smashed windows," Bortolin said.