Windsor’s crime stats from last year seem to reflect the fact most people stayed home.
While break-ins and motor vehicle collisions fell, domestic violence increased significantly from 2019.
A report going to the Windsor Police Services Board shows a 13.6 per cent drop in overall crime in 2020. It reports 15,851 incidents last year compared to 18,349 the year before. Property crime was down 17 per cent, but violent crime rose 15.8 per cent.
A home-based population likely discouraged those who would commit home break-ins. Police investigated 567 residential break-and-enters, a 29 per cent drop, and criminals broke into fewer businesses. Those crimes were down 10.3 per cent.
Attempted break-ins rose. There were 210 attempted break-and-enters in 2020, a decrease of 41 incidents from the year before.
Vehicle thefts fell 15.5 per cent from 2019, and charges related to crashes dropped by almost a third.
While homicides and attempted murders fell by 40 per cent and 66 per cent, other crimes, including assaults and sexual assaults increased. There were 959 assaults in 2020 up from 848 in 2019.
Assaults involving family members, typically called domestic assaults, were up 21 per cent, and sexual assaults involving family were up 12.5 per cent. Police laid 681 assault charges and 45 sexual assault charges against family members.
There were three homicides in Windsor last year compared with five in 2019 and three attempted murders compared with nine the previous year.
