More surveillance and affordable housing part of Mayor Dilken's re-election platform

Increased collaboration with police and surveillance is one of the focuses for Mayor Drew Dilken's platform for re-election on Oct. 22.

From installing 100 cameras in public spaces which police can access and monitor, to setting up a digital neighbourhood watch system through the use of resident-owned cameras, Dilkens wants police to have "real-time" information.

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He also mentioned implementing a new service to allow people to report crime through videos, pictures, text messages and file transfers directly to the 911 dispatch centre.

"It takes us to the next level," said Dilkens.

The digital cameras are expected to cost $1.5 million and the 911 implementation wouldcost roughly $2 million.

However, he gave reassurance that the money wouldcome out of an existing capital budget.

Will increasingsurveillance help?

John Ansell is a downtown Windsor business owner who has seen his fair share of crime in the past few years.

His business has been broken into before and he said he'shad property stolen. He has security cameras outside of his restaurant, but he said they resulted in no real action from police.

It's a "band-aid solution," said Ansell.

However, Ann Cavoukian, former information and privacy commissioner of Ontario, is more concerned about privacy.

"When you have all these cameras connected, you can imagine the amount of surveillance and tracking of everyone, including law-abiding citizens, thatcould take place," she said.

She said police should have to demonstrate that they believe a crime has been committed in an area before being able to access that footage. One way to protect surveillance footage is to encrypt it, she said, and police couldthen decrypt it after receiving court approval.

"We don't want to live in a police state.We don't want to live in a surveillance state," said Cavoukian.

Affordable housing and opioid strategy

Also on Dilken's platform is a plan for more affordable housing.

He said the city owns a piece of land at Caron and University Avenues, which has been "extremely under-utilized." His plan is to conduct environmental assessments and do any clean-up necessary before selling it to a developer.

He also proposes to put together a community outreach team made of social services workers to "address the needs of the homeless." There's also an opioid strategy he's working on but he said implementing the strategy would need funding from the provincial and federal level.

"It would be impossible, we do not have the resources to do it."

The municipal election is Oct. 22. Matt Marchand, Frank Dyck, TomHensel and Ernie Lamont are also running for mayor.