VIDEO Security Consultant Hired to Address Downtown Problems

The Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association is bringing back an international crime expert to examine drug and homelessness issues in the city core.

Peter Bellmio is a criminal justice management consultant who's been here twice before, in 2003 and 2008.

His last report focused on the issue of underage drinking in the downtown.

Bellmio says the current crisis involving opioids, homelessness and mental health issues is much different.

"This is much more complex, there's more involved in terms of the victimization of people whether they're homeless or drug addicted or they're trying to run a business in Windsor," he says. "They are too being victimized to some degree."

Safety consultant Peter Bellmio, DWBIA Chair Larry Horwitz, Ouellette Avenue, November 19, 2018 (by AM800's Peter Langille)

He believes the only way to solve the issue is to develop a local solution.

"The conditions are all different, it really means getting a community to the point where there's a sense of urgency that we've really go to change something and we've got to work together to find a better, the 'Windsor way' of addressing these issues," says Bellmio.

A series of meetings will be held with local business owners and downtown residents in the new year.

"We're going to schedule those meetings now, I've written a work plan and the staff at the BIA are going to help me wet up those interviews and we'll do that all in January," says Bellmio. "Try to work with existing groups because they're the people out there committed now."

He plans to write a report on the situation in February.