Safety & Crime Prevention Walk strolls through Kingsville’s waterfront area | Spare News
As of January 1, 2019, the Safer Ontario Act, 2018 has required municipalities to prepare and adopt community safety and well-being plans in partnership with a multi-sectoral advisory committee. The plan for Windsor-Essex had to be submitted and endorsed by City and County Councils by December 31, 2021.
The Windsor Essex Regional Community Safety and Well-Being Plan was developed to intervene before an incident occurs and prevent risks.
As part of this initiative, neighbourhood safety and crime prevention walks are being held in various parts of the region, where municipal leaders, safety experts, and residents walk through their community and look at it through a crime prevention lens. This gives those experts an opportunity to go over practical strategies that can lead to improved feelings of safety and prevent crimes from occurring, such as vandalism.
So far, three of these walks have taken place in the Town of Essex, with events strolling through Essex Centre and Harrow in 2022, and Colchester towards the end of 2024.
Most recently, one was held along Kingsville’s waterfront where members of the OPP, Kingsville Council members and staff, City of Windsor staff, and Kingsville residents toured the area with Barry Horrobin, Director of Planning and Physical Resource with the Windsor Police Service.
Participants were able to meet up at the Mettawas Park Gazebo that evening, where residents were first treated to some pizza, before heading out on the walk where they learned how they could prevent opportunities for crime, change the way they see and walk through their neighbourhood, and learn personal safety tips.
The Windsor Essex Regional Community Safety and Well-Being Plan includes four priorities, developed through community and stakeholder engagement: Good Governance, Engaged and Safe Communities, Mental Health and Substance-Use Supports, and Financial Security and Economic Equity.
It also prevents crime through environmental design.
Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) “draws heavily on the known relationship between physical planning and criminal opportunity to optimally design the landscape in a manner that deters a person from engaging in unlawful activity,” the Windsor Essex Regional Community Safety & Well-being Plan guidebook notes.
It highlights how landscaping can be used to help reduce acts of crime and disorder, how to reduce vulnerability to entry by unauthorized individuals, using natural surveillance to maximize visibility, decreasing criminal opportunity through limited or controlled access to property or facilities, establishing territoriality, and encouraging legitimate activity in public spaces.
Kingsville Councillor Sheri Lowrie spoke of the importance of proactively designing neighbourhoods with safety and wellbeing top of mind.
“We want to make little ones feel safe,” she said of communities and public spaces. “I look forward to learning along with you.”
Essex County OPP Constable Chris Ciliska led the walk. He noted some of the things that can be done through environmental design to prevent crime will be common sense, while other tips and ideas will include things many may have not thought about before or considered.
Residents had the opportunity to engage in an open conversation throughout the route, and ask any questions as the event organizers pointed out crime prevention and safety tips.
The Municipality of Lakeshore then hosted a Neighbourhood Safety and Crime Prevention Walk in collaboration with Windsor-Essex Regional Community Safety and Well-Being Plan on Tuesday, June 17, from 6:30pm to 8pm.
For more information, log onto www.citywindsor.ca/residents/socialservices-/Social-Policy-and-Pathway-to-Potential/community-safety-and-well-being/Pages/default.aspx
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