Jerome Brannagan, deputy police chief in Windsor, Ont., says the fact Windsor has yet to report a homicide this year is a credit to the community. (Steven Bull/CBC News)Windsor, a southwestern Ontario city hit hard by unemployment and other economic woes, is on track to complete 2010 without a single homicide.

As of Thursday afternoon, the border city last reported a homicide 15 months ago, when a 23-year-old man was shot downtown.

The city's last murder-free year was 1963.

"For our community to have none, that's a credit to our police service, but certainly to our community, the people that live in our community — and luck," said Deputy Chief Jerome Brannagan of Windsor police.

"For a community this size, for the tensions that have been around for this community, not to have a homicide is very peculiar and we're very grateful for that," he said.

Windsor, with a population of about 216,000, averages about five homicides per year, but this year's murder-free record so far doesn't mean the investigative team is idle.

The major crimes unit may not have to work overtime this holiday season, but it still has a number of cases to deal with from previous years, said Brannagan.

"Right now we have about 10 [cases] before the courts in one form or one stage or another. So even though we haven't had any this year, our people are still busy continuing to prosecute those that we've investigated in the past."

With Windsor making national headlines for the highest unemployment in the country, some have suggested a rise in crime would follow.

Both Brannagan and Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis reject that idea.

Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis says the city has a 'respectable' murder record compared to other Canadian cities its size. (Steven Bull/CBC News)

We've been hit hard, yet our numbers, our crime stats continue to decline," said Francis. "So as our unemployment went up, our crime stats either stayed the same or declined, and in this case, continued to decline. So I've never seen the correlation."

Francis calls Windsor's record "respectable" compared to other Canadian cities of similar size, and given that its U.S. neighbour is Detroit. FBI figures released in May show Detroit had 361 murders in 2009, up from 323 in 2008, and one of the highest rates in the U.S.

Francis added: "The fact that it's [Windsor's murder rate this year] zero gives us an opportunity — and [I] hope it remains zero, fingers crossed — to further tell our story to the rest of the world."