Windsor police are receiving some extra provincial money to help their efforts against sex trafficking.
Provided by the Ontario government, funding of $99,608 will go toward Exit Strategy — a plan to give Windsor police officers additional technology and training “to enhance their ability to identify both victims of human trafficking and perpetrators.
The plan is also meant to support community partners, creating a “multi-disciplinary approach” to rescue the victims of human trafficking cases.
The funding boost is one of 21 allotments going to police services across the province through the Ontario government’s Civil Remedies Grant Program.
A total of $1.5 million is being spent on various projects aimed at prevention of unlawful activity and support for victims.
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Other endeavours benefiting from the additional funding are Cornwall Community Police Service’s Project One Percent — meant to disrupt outlaw motorcycle gang activity — and purchase of a portable IONSCAN device for Ottawa Police Service, which should help their officers in rapid detection and identification of drugs and dangerous opioids.
Money for the Civil Remedies Grant Program comes from forfeiture of proceeds and property related to crime.
Human trafficking charges have been laid in a number of shocking cases related to Windsor this year, including an incident in May where a distraught woman was found at a downtown hotel, saying that she had been forced into prostitution.
In August in Winnipeg, a former Windsor woman told police she had been subject to abuse and forced into prostitution by a man who treated her so inhumanly, he kept her in an unplugged freezer for extended periods of time.
In June in London, three males from Kitchener-Waterloo pleaded guilty to setting up a prostitution operation involving teenage female victims — one as young as 14 years old.
A Windsor hotel room was one of the locations across southwestern Ontario where “work” was done by the victims.