Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens returns as chair of police service board

Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens will go back to chairing the board that oversees Windsor police, though it is expected to be his last 10 months in the role.

Coun. Jo-Anne Gignac served as chair of the Windsor Police Services Board in 2025, but Dilkens alone was nominated as chair for this year.

Gignac had previously served as vice-chair of the board, and will return to that role in 2026.

"It's been a real learning experience and it's been very gratifying in terms of the changes that we've seen within the police service board, within the police service,” Gignac said during a meeting of the board on Thursday.

“But it's become, quite frankly, very evident to me that sitting in the chair was far beyond what I expected, even after 22 years of sitting in council chambers and serving as chair for almost every committee within the City of Windsor.”

The seven-member Windsor Police Services Board provides oversight and sets policy for the Windsor police service, which operates in Windsor and Amherstburg. Two members are appointed by the provincial government, while three come from city council and one is appointed by the municipality but cannot be a councillor or a city employee.

Dilkens had stepped away from the chair role in 2025, telling the board at the time he was “done being chair" and asked not to be nominated, though he remained on the board with Gignac as chair.

“I think it's time for some renewal, for someone else to take the chair,” he told the board in January 2025.

The province introduced new rules that bar people who have been employed by the police service from serving on police boards. 

Dilkens once served as a member of the Windsor police auxiliary, though he is permitted to remain on the board during the transition to the new rules, which take effect this year.

In his comments to the board on Thursday, Dilkens thanked his colleagues, and nodded at his current term of council ending in October.

“But I think everyone knows that… even if I decide to run in the next election and even if I'm successful, I'm statutorily barred from serving past the next 10 months,” Dilkens said. “So I could only serve for 10 more months and then it would have to be another chair after that.

“I'm honoured to serve another 10 months here.”

Law background 'essential,' says outgoing chair

Gignac told the board having a background in law was “essential” for police board chairs, pointing to both former mayor Eddie Francis and Dilkens himself. 

"I want to thank my colleagues for the fact that you put me in the chair, that you had confidence that I could do the job. And I appreciate Mayor Dilkens agreeing to sit in that chair again," she said.

“But thank you for the nomination to be vice chair. I'm perfectly happy with that.”

Gignac, during her time as chair, had been frank about the costs of policing the city, and has said the city will continue to press for funding from other levels of government to help defray those costs.

The police service is asking for a four per cent budget increase this year, even as Dilkens tabled a zero per cent budget increase city-wide, largely in personnel costs.

Stats show crime decline in Glengarry neighbourhood

Also during Thursday's meeting, Chief Jason Crowley gave an update on quarterly crime statistics. 

There’s been a five per cent reduction in crimes against police and almost 12 per cent in crimes against property, he said.

Specifically in the city’s Glengarry neighbourhood, Crowley said crimes against people are down about 16 per cent. 

Assaults, which make up about 70 per cent of the city’s crimes against people category, are down about 5.6 per cent in 2025. 

Crowley said the board will discuss annual crime statistics at its next meeting.

Intimate partner violence is one area where police continue to work, he said, noting that IPV cases spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic but haven't gone back down. 

Crowley said the department's current initiatives on IPV are seeing results, with hundreds of referrals made to Hiatus House and Family Services Windsor-Essex — but he also nodded at new partnerships coming this year that will focus on IPV offenders.

"We know this is really where we need to focus some attention," he said.