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Windsor city councillor calls for school board, police collaboration to tackle youth crime

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Ward 4 Coun. Mark McKenzie is calling for greater collaboration between the Greater Essex County District School Board (GECDSC) and the Windsor Police Service in response to a recent rise in youth crime across the city.

Mark McKenzie asked Windsor City Council to support a motion to have the city send a letter to the public school board encouraging them to work more collaboratively with police after an annual report from Windsor police revealed youth-related crimes increased nearly 27 per cent between 2022 and 2023.

“And it's just 27 per cent last year, which is alarming,” said McKenzie on Monday. “It's the fact that over the past three years, it's even more than that. From what I understand, it's like 50 per cent over the past three years youth crime is up. So that's definitely an alarming stat that definitely the City of Windsor should be trying to address as well as Windsor police.”

“The Windsor Police Service already has a relationship with the Catholic school board here in Windsor-Essex,” McKenzie explained. “They don't really have that relationship with the Greater Essex County District School Board (GECDSB)…that kind of fell apart years ago, before COVID even.”

McKenzie said students must be reached out to at an early age because by the time they’re 17 or 18 years old, it’s “too late.” He added that sometimes these children lack a role model at home and said police officers can be a good role model that children will look up to.

According to McKenzie, some schools within the public system already have a proactive and preventative working relationship with police, however he said it’s on a school-by-school basis.

“It's something that the Catholic school board is already doing and many school boards around the country already do, but unfortunately, the GECDSB, which is our largest school board in Windsor-Essex, isn't engaging in that with Windsor police,” he explained. “Let's have a board wide policy and let's start having police again engaging with these students from a young age.”

McKenzie said police should work with children beginning in kindergarten and through the twelfth grade with the hope they’ll become more involved with Windsor police, charities and other events in the community.

“And again, getting them away from that crime that you know, sometimes you'll get pulled into and just being a good member of society,” he explained.

“Especially with a lot of new immigrants and refugees coming to Windsor, in some of those countries, police are scary. We want to say ‘Look, police aren't scary. Police are your friend. They're here to help you.’ And we need to start building that relationship again from a young age,” he added.

McKenzie said he hopes a new policy can be in place by September.

Both Windsor police and GECDSB officials were unable to provide CTV News Windsor by the time of publication. 

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