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The Crime Severity Index — Statistics Canada’s measure for the seriousness of police-reported crime — has risen for most of the country, according to the national agency’s most recent report.
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But Windsor-Essex is bucking the national trend, with a significant decline in local murders.
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Breaking down the numbers by census metropolitan area, the most recent report states our region’s CSI fell from 77 at the end of 2021 to 68.6 at the end of 2022 — an 11 per cent decrease, by StatsCan’s calculations.
“One of the big things where we saw a decrease (in Windsor-Essex) was murder in the first-degree,” said Warren Silver, a spokesperson and analyst for Statistics Canada. “In 2021, there were seven incidents reported by police. In 2022, there were three.”
Silver also pointed to a significant local drop in incidents related to making or distributing child pornography (92 in 2021; 27 in 2022), and a massive decrease in incidents related to importation or exportation of cannabis (650 in 2021; 14 in 2022).
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More interpretative than raw crime rate, the Crime Severity Index weighs police data by the nature of occurrences. Murder, for example, is factored far more heavily than betting offences.
“A decrease of murder — which is the most serious violation — would have a big impact on the CSI,” Silver said.
The region also saw less significant decreases in break-and-enter crimes (1,679 in 2021, to 1,641 in 2022) and thefts under $5,000 (1,996 in 2021, to 1,617 in 2022).
Silver said that while the overall crime rate in Windsor-Essex rose slightly in 2022 (an increase of one per cent), the more telling scores are the region’s Violent Crime Severity Index (70.6, down from 72) and Non-Violent Crime Severity Index (68.4, down from 79.6).
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By comparison, scores in the same categories from a national perspective have not been so positive. Statistics Canada said the countrywide Violent Crime Severity Index rose to 97.7 in 2022 — the highest the national score has been since 2007.
The country’s overall Non-Violent Crime Severity Index, which includes property and drug offences, also rose in 2022, to 70.9 — although the national score remains lower than it was in 2019.
“Windsor is in the middle of the pack. Twentieth in the country out of 35 comparable CMAs (census metropolitan areas),” Silver said. “And in Ontario, Windsor’s CSI is seventh out of 14. Just ahead of London, and just behind Belleville.”
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Ward 3 Coun. Renaldo Agostino said Windsor bucking the national trend of more serious crime is a testament not only to the efforts of police, but the community at large.
“It’s the combination of police, nurses, social workers — everyone’s ship pointed in the same direction,” Agostino said. “It’s about safety and security, so many people working together.”
Windsor’s core has been a problem area for crime, with police devoting extra resources and new strategies to address downtown incidents such as assaults, stabbings, break-ins, and wanton vandalism.
But Agostino feels it’s important not to conflate “isolated” and “very rare” violent incidents with homelessness and mental health crises.
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“There are a lot of different things happening downtown. Homelessness and mental health issues are not criminal,” Agostino pointed out.
“A lot of people, in their mind, when they see the homeless, when they see people suffering, they confuse that with criminality. That’s not right. The perception of that needs to change.
“Downtown Windsor is a pretty safe place to be in comparison with some places in the rest of the country, and certainly in comparison to some places in the United States.”
Agostino noted that he recently attended a discussion panel in Detroit — where more than 300 annual murders is a regular statistic. In 2022 alone, Detroit had 309 deaths by homicide.
“We get so locked into what we see here (in Windsor). But the truth isn’t always in our perceptions,” Agostino said.
“Our numbers coming down tell me this is the time to put our foot on the gas, to go full-court press, because what we’re doing is working — we’re making gains.”
dchen@postmedia.com
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