Property, violent crimes, domestic incidents down in month of April, says Windsor Police Board

Crime statistics released by Windsor Police Services show overall crime in the City of Windsor and Town of Amherstburg fell in April compared to last year and in some cases last month.

According to reports compiled forthe police board's public meeting Thursday, there were 1,112 crimes last month which is about 20 per cent less than April of last year. It's also 26 per cent less than the total crimes reported in March.

"As part of our COVID-19 response for April, we did take officers and resources for other areas and put them into areas to bolster patrols," saidJason Bellaire, deputychief of operations, during the board meeting.

In March, there was a "significant spike" in property crimes, which Bellairesaid was part of the reason for deferring officers to other areas.

"We added somestrategies and personnel and resources to those particular types of investigations. And for this month anyway, there was a significant reduction in some of the statistics and mild reductions in other ones as well."

Violent crimes were down by only 12 overall incidents from April 19, but down by 66 incidents reported in March. There were 178 violent crimes in Windsor and Amherstburg last month.

Domesticassaults, which includes families, were reported 41 times in April. That's14 less incidents than last yearand eightless than last month.

Assaults on non-family members, threats, harassing phone calls, and other violent crimes made up the bulk of the incidents last month.

Property crime was about 17 per cent lower this April than last, and significantly lower than last month. There were 122 break and enter or attempted break and enters in the region.

"More officers on the ground to respond to these calls has proven to be something that we believe is one reducingour response time and two allowing more visible patrols and more follow up to criminal investigations and other needs of the community," said Bellaire.

Other property crimes included 170 thefts of under $5,000, still lower than last year or in March.

No surprise as people are isolating that traffic incidents were down by about 49 per cent this April compared to last.