Windsor, Ont., police stop taking some retail theft reports, prompting criticism
CBC
The Retail Council of Canada is questioning a decision by Windsor, Ont., police to stop accepting retail theft reports from companies that won't co-operate with criminal investigations.
At a board meeting last month, Windsor police Chief Jason Bellaire said the service is "looking to do more and better with our time."
"We're not going to be accepting any complaints that nobody wants to do anything about," Bellaire said.
But Rui Rodrigues of the Retail Council of Canada told CBC that Windsor police should be accepting all reports of theft, no exceptions.
"I would say Windsor police can't make that call, and I say that frankly. Citizens have a right to report that crime and police have a right to receive that crime. That's their duty."
Retail theft has been a growing concern in many parts of Canada and the U.S. in recent years.
September statistics for Windsor police show a 3.6 per cent jump in theft compared to the same month last year. However, the statistics don't specify how many of those are retail thefts.
In June, Windsor police reported 22 per cent of the overall number of thefts under $5,000 were related to shoplifting. The service said there's one retailer reporting 30 per cent of those incidents, but has no interest in co-operating with police for prevention efforts.
Police haven't publicly named that retailer.
"We're not going to have someone just reporting 30 thefts from the week, on a Saturday, as a matter of filing their paperwork. We're just not interested in dealing with that anymore," said Bellaire.
It appears the changes have already happened. On the Windsor police website, it won't allow someone to report a retail theft if there's no interest in pressing charges or providing a witness statement.
Bellaire hasn't been available for media questions following the September and August board meetings. Windsor police also did not respond to subsequent email requests for an interview with Bellaire about these changes.
By comparison, other police services in Ontario do things a bit differently.
Toronto police say they will accept reports of theft under $5,000 "whether or not the retailer has the desire to co-operate with any proceedings."
Doors are ready to open to welcome Londoners of all ages at the new London Children's Museum next week.
A St. John's man accused of sexually abusing youths over a period of nearly two decades is now set for trial on 72 counts, after the Crown and defence agreed to combine a number of charges into one proceeding.
WARNING: This story contains graphic details.
WARNING: This story contains details about child pornography, sexual abuse and the torture and killing of animals.
FSIN, legal experts call for change after charges against driver stayed in death of Baeleigh Maurice
The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations is calling for a change to the Criminal Code of Canada to prioritize child victims of crime, after a Saskatchewan provincial court judge stayed a charge related to the 2021 death of a nine-year-old Saskatoon girl.
Firefighters in Saskatchewan have been lobbying for decades for better cancer coverage. Now, the Saskatchewan Workers Compensation Board (WCB) is stepping in to provide some relief.
Canada's chief actuary says Alberta would be entitled to interest from the Canada Pension Plan proportional to the money Albertans have invested, should the province withdraw from CPP.
WARNING: This article includes details of sexual assault against a child.
A coalition of mainly Black-led groups demanded on Friday that the city adopt recommendations from a report critical of its refusal to let refugee claimants access beds in its homeless shelter system in 2022 and 2023. The report by Ombudsman Kwame Addo, released last week, found that the city's decision to stop allowing refugees access to beds in its base shelter system was "poorly thought out, planned for, and communicated" and amounted to anti-Black racism. City manager Paul Johnson said he did not agree with the report's findings.
The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency is trying to recover millions of dollars in unpaid loans to various businesses which have been set up on P.E.I. over the years, court documents show.
An Ontario man with a lengthy criminal record, who pleaded guilty to harassment and firearm charges in a case of intimate partner violence has been handed a "lenient" sentence a year after he was caught up in a "shocking" and aggressive strip search by jail guards in riot gear.