Crime severity index up 23 per cent

By Miranda Monahan

When travellers decide on where to go, usually crime is a consideration.

According to the crime severity index, a tool created by Statistics Canada which measures the crime in a city year to year, Windsor’s crime rate increased by 23 per cent in 2018. The numbers for 2019 have not yet been released. 

The increase in the crime severity index in 2017 was about seven per cent. This includes a 14 per cent increase in violent crime and a five per cent increase in non-violent crime.

“There has been an increase especially in the downtown area, with property crime and things of that nature,” said Sgt. Stephen Betteridge, information officer for Windsor Police.

To help combat this, Windsor Police have added patrols to the downtown area on Friday and Saturday. 

According to Sgt. Betteridge, with the crime increase, whether or not to come to Windsor for tourism reasons is an individual decision. 

Gordon Orr is the CEO of Tourism Windsor-Essex and Pelee Island, Windsor-Essex County’s tourism bureau. Orr says there is no correlation between crime and tourism. 

“No it is not – there is no direct correlation between the two. We are still a very safe destination and the topic of crime is not resonating with our visitors,” said Orr.

Approximately 20 million people visited Windsor in 2016. This can be attributed to having attractions like Caesars Windsor and Essex County Wine Route. 

On a federal level, over 20 million international visitors travel to Canada each year. 

Canada has seen a spike in gun and gang violence. In 2016, there were 141 reported gang-related homicides. Of that 141, 112 were gun-related homicides. 

For more information on crime statistics, you can visit Statistics Canada’s website. Tourism information for Windsor-Essex County can be found on TWEPI’s website and tourism information for Canada can be found on Canada Travel’s website.