On December 22, Projet Montréal unveiled its budget proposal for the year 2022. After a year in which gun violence and police violence often made headlines, Montrealers were curious to see how the new budget would tackle the issue. complex public safety issue. Unfortunately, neither of these problems will be resolved in the budget, and may even make them worse over the coming year.
At the heart of the proposed budget is a dramatic increase in police spending. The operating budget of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) will increase by $ 45 million in 2022, the second largest increase in the history of this service (which dates back to 2002). Combined with new police funding from the Quebec government announced over the past year, this is the largest increase on record for the service. This new amount will allow the SPVM to hire 122 new police officers, adding to what is already the largest police force per capita among large Canadian cities – 35% larger than the Toronto police force. The budget also includes a $ 20 million increase in capital investment for the SPVM over five years.
This record increase comes amid continued calls to redirect police spending towards community programs. During last year’s public consultation on the budget, 73% of Montrealers said they wanted to see the police budget cut – an outcome that Projet Montreal chose to ignore. A year later, during the public consultation for the 2022 budget, the party simply eliminated the issue of police spending. Without a new poll, it’s clear that reallocation of police funding remains the main demand of groups seeking to eradicate racism and police violence. As author and activist Robyn Maynard argues, increasing police budgets reveal the hypocrisy of elected officials who, amid the historic Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, have vowed to make real change.
The irony is that some of the new police spending is described as reform. The government of Quebec has pledged $ 25 million this year to improve “the bond of trust … between the population and our police forces”, while Montreal has earmarked $ 16.5 million in 2022 to equip police officers with body cameras and , once again, “consolidate the bond of trust with citizens”. In fact, the $ 16.5 million only covers the cost of the technology, and Projet Montreal has admitted that more money will be needed in 2023 to hire the police personnel required to handle the video produced by the cameras.
This money, however, will not change the policy in a positive way. A decade of research shows that body cameras do not reduce racism or police violence, and are most often used against citizens.
The most ardent supporter of body cameras is the SPVM, which believes that the technology will help counter the negative impression created by “the dissemination of extracts of police interventions by third parties (citizens) on various digital platforms”.
While it does not address the problem of police violence, the budget also does little to tackle gun violence. Valérie Plante said the increased spending will allow police to “be even more proactive,” but the idea that police can prevent gun violence is based on flawed premises. The SPVM frequently claims that seizing firearms prevents violence. However, this assumes that people have weapons in order to use them against others (rather than for protection). It also assumes, like the failed drug war, that the supply of a potentially harmful product can be reduced to such an extent that demand does not matter. Figures from the SPVM itself suggest the opposite. The SPVM’s intensified operation against firearms in 2021 managed to seize only 14 more firearms than the previous year (607 against 593).
Studies clearly show that violence prevention requires community programs and services. It requires programs that address the social conditions that lead people to violence and work with those at risk of committing violent acts to guide them down another path. While this work cannot prevent all acts of violence, it can prevent much of it – and it is the only approach that can. This work also has the advantage of addressing violence in its various forms, including femicides (7 of 37 homicides in 2021) and murders committed without a gun (half of homicides in 2021).
Despite its effectiveness, community-based violence prevention remains massively underfunded in Montreal.
The organization with the most experience in this field, the Café jeunesse multiculturel de Montréal-Nord, saw its municipal funding reduced to zero in 2021. The proposed budget for 2022 does not do much to address this problem, allocating only $ 5 million to community prevention (an increase of $ 2.6 million from 2021). Many Montrealers expected this budget to tackle gun violence. However, it offers 20 times more new money for police than for community violence prevention.
In at least two respects, therefore, Projet Montréal’s budget does the opposite of what is required. In an era of unprecedented demands for cuts in police funding, the budget provides for a historic increase. At a time when everyone wants to see effective violence prevention, the budget only includes $ 2.6 million in new spending. A change of direction, a complete 180-degree turn, is needed to make this budget a real safety tool for all Montrealers.