An $84,867 provincial grant will go towards pharmacy safety in Windsor-Essex.

Police say the Windsor-Essex Pharmacy Safety Initiative is a multi-partnered public safety enhancement approach that will apply unique methodologies to directly confront crime and emerging safety issues around neighbourhood pharmacies. 

Officers say pharmacy-related crimes are a safety concern within our community. Throughout the Windsor-Essex region there are 147 pharmacies, 100 of them being in Windsor alone. 

The multi-partnered approach will involve all local police services in Windsor and Essex County working together with the Essex County Pharmacists Association to make neighbourhood pharmacies safer.

The approach is crime prevention centred, using a wide array of new and proven techniques and strategies that are specifically designed to address the unique crime and disorder patterns associated with pharmacies. 

The money came from the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services through its Proceeds of Crime Front-line Policing Grant

The first stage of the initiative will involve the completion of a safety questionnaire by each pharmacy. 

Surveys will be hand delivered by uniformed police personnel within each policing jurisdiction following a notification to all pharmacies by the Pharmacists Association.

During stage two, police personnel from the jurisdiction where the business is located will conduct a Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design assessment of each pharmacy. 

The initiative will then proceed with implementation of recognized techniques designed to reduce the identified and targeted crimes.