New offender unit has police keeping close watch on Windsor, LaSalle

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A new joint Offender Management Unit — a co-operative effort between the Windsor and LaSalle police services — has already paid dividends in chasing down people who are not adhering to compliance conditions, police say. 

“Over its first three weeks, this dedicated team completed over 14 compliance checks, leading to the arrest of eight offenders and arrest warrants issued for three other non-compliant individuals,” police said in a release. 

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“The offenders arrested for breaching their conditions had originally been charged with or convicted of serious violent crimes, including murder, attempted murder, robbery, firearms offences, and sexual assault.” 

Windsor police Insp. David Deluca and LaSalle police Deputy Chief Jason Woods outlined how the program works Thursday at police headquarters in Windsor. The unit started its work on March 11.

“This allows us to focus on community safety and really make people accountable,” said Deluca. “These individuals were released with very strict conditions.” 

The Offender Management Unit is responsible for monitoring high-risk individuals placed under house arrest, curfew, or electronic monitoring. 

The joint initiative is effective because criminals are not limited to any one community, said Woods.  

“Just because they reside in Windsor does not mean that they won’t travel to other communities. Partnering together like this ensures that we will blanket the area and … we can utilize each other’s strengths.” 

The provincial government provided the joint initiative with $2.2 million in funding over three years as part of a $112-million investment to help police track and monitor repeat and violent offenders who are released on bail. 

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Windsor has dedicated two full-time members to the unit, LaSalle has one full-time sworn member and one part-time member. The unit will operate out of Windsor police headquarters. 

While the two police services regularly work together, the funding makes it easier for the two services to dedicate resources to the unit, said Woods. 

While the unit will focus on high-risk offenders, anyone with stringent bail conditions may be monitored.  

“Some individuals are released with much more stringent conditions,” said Deluca. “We as a unit are attempting to touch every single individual and if someone needs a little more attention, absolutely they’ll get a little more of our attention. 

“The officers that are assigned to this unit get to know all of the individuals on the list very well now. So it makes it much more efficient.” 

The unit will focus on high-risk offenders at first, said Woods, “those who are GPS, attempted murder, robbery and such. We’ve identified the most serious ones.” 

But the unit will be “fluid,” with possible changes to how it works as it gains more experience, he said. 

bamacleod@postmedia.com 

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