Windsor looking to take over Amherstburg police

Windsor is pricing out how much it would cost to take over policing in the town of Amherstburg.

The city held a special in-camera council meeting on Tuesday afternoon to discuss providing a regional police service for Amherstburg.

"Where you will finds savings is actually in the overhead and in the specialized services that we are very good at here in the City of Windsor," Mayor Drew Dilkens said.

"We have a bomb squad, we have a full drug team, tactical units. We have training centre so all of those specialized programs cost money to operate and unlike anyone else who could submit a proposal, we could have all those services to the town of Amherstburg or the town of LaSalle in 15 or 20 minutes" Dilkens said.

The Amherstburg Police Service patrols approximately 190 square kilometres of territory, according to its website.

The idea has the support of Windsor's police chief.

"There's a number of regional policing services in the province of Ontario. They were all formed many decades ago but they all started out the same way with the central municipality and they amalgamated to join regional police services," Chief Al Frederick said.

"They are extremely effective and they are also efficient models of policing."