Regional police pitched during election

Several of Windsor mayoral candidates say they're on board with the possibility of aregionalpolice force after the city's police chief put out the idea earlier this week.

• Windsor area police forces not efficient, report says

Police Chief Al Frederick said regional policing would increase response times, make policing more efficient and cheaper.

"The benefits are numerous," he said.

This comes after a report written by the Fraser Institute was released on Monday, which ranked the Windsor area the third most inefficient police service in Canada.

Frederick said he is not crunching numbers just yet. He has to wait for direction from the city.

"No, absolutely not. I won't do a lick of work until the decision is made that this is where we want to go."

Some mayoral candidates are already throwing their support behind the idea.

Drew Dikens said if he's elected mayor, he will look at regionalizing many city services, including police services.

"The sooner we can have that conversation, the better off we would be as a region and as a community," said Dilkens."I really think it's really important that we sit down, we get all the stakeholders around the table."

Mayoral candidate John Millson said he'd need to do more research to make sure a regional police service is the best option for Windsor.

"I agree that there are benefits and advantages to a unified approach to services like policing," hesaid.

"I respect the chief's view on this. Moving to a regionalized policing model would require agreement from all regional police services. Before committing to this, I will hear each of their perspectivesincluding the potential challenges and opportunities. My priority would be to ensure that front line officers roles are always well resourced. I will not compromise the safety of Windsor residents," Millson said.

Tecumseh's Mayor Gary McNamara said he's opposed to the idea.