After carrying out profound reforms in police methods in Longueuil, Fady Dagher was chosen to become the next chief of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM).
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His candidacy will be presented this afternoon by Mayor Valérie Plante after being selected on Wednesday by the selection committee for the SPVM management position.
Chief of the Longueuil agglomeration police department (SPAL) since 2017, Fady Dagher has become known for his vision of a local police service focused on prevention.
In particular, the director set up the Immersion project, during which officers did internships in the community, without weapons or uniforms, in order to better understand the realities of the environment in which they must work, in particular mental health problems.
The reforms of this media darling and television star were the subject of a series broadcast on RDI called Forward-thinking font.
A shared welcome
It was not Fady Dagher who had applied for the SPVM, we would rather have gone to look for him to rethink the ways of doing things in the metropolis, according to our information. His contract in Longueuil had also been renewed for eight years last December.
According to Stéphane Wall, a retired SPVM police officer, the culture of proximity and prevention that he put forward in Longueuil makes him an “ideal candidate” for the Plante administration.
Archival photo
Fady Dagher was appointed chief of the Longueuil agglomeration police service (SPAL) in 2017, where he notably had to manage serious climate problems.
“To succeed in restoring a sense of trust among certain citizens, a partnership approach is needed. Fady, he has that. […] Valérie has always seen it in her soup,” he comments.
Retired inspector Guy Ryan also thinks it’s an excellent choice.
“He has always been very close to people in the Arab community. He is very calm,” praises the man who supervised him when he started at the SPVM in the mid-1990s.
In the ranks of the police, however, the appointment of Mr. Dagher is greeted with caution, although it is stressed that a new approach will have long-term beneficial effects.
“I just hope that we will keep in mind that armed violence cannot be resolved only with prevention,” underlines an investigator on condition of anonymity.
“I can’t wait to see how he intends to apply his method to a city like Montreal. It may take hundreds of more police officers, ”says an agent from the north of the city.
“Toxic” climate
The vision implemented by Fady Dagher in Longueuil could be difficult to transpose to Montreal, believes Stéphane Wall.
“It’s not the same thing to do a rapprochement project with 150 police officers than with 2,300 patrol officers who are not in sufficient numbers to respond to 911 calls”, explains the former police officer.
There is also a long way to go to bring these new ways of doing things into the collective agreement, adds Guy Ryan.
Archival photo
Fady Dagher in the uniform of the Montreal police, where he worked for 25 years.
This month, our Bureau of Inquiry also brought to light serious climate problems within the South Shore police force, characterized by harassment, threats and intimidation.
If Fady Dagher acknowledged the existence of a “rotten”, even “toxic” climate, former employees criticized him for not having acted quickly enough.
The Mayor of Longueuil, Catherine Fournier, encouraged employees to break the culture of silence.
Vision of the future
On Wednesday, she was delighted to see that Mr. Dagher’s vision was able to challenge the City of Montreal.
“Mr. Dagher has contributed to establishing a unique vision of consultation in Quebec which is, in our opinion, THE vision for the future,” she said in a press release on Wednesday.
Fady Dagher’s candidacy will have to be ratified by the Montreal City Council and the Quebec Council of Ministers before he takes office this winter.
– With Frédérique Giguère, Axel Marchand-Lamothe and QMI Agency
30 years of career
1991
- Fady Dagher graduated from the National Police School of Quebec, in Nicolet.
1992 to 2017
- He worked for 25 years at the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal.
- At the head of the Saint-Michel neighborhood station, he created a pilot partnership project with the community. He is also the author of the first policy in Canada on racial and social profiling.
2015
- vil.Denis Coderre prefers Philippe Pichet.
2017
- He takes the helm of the Longueuil agglomeration police department.
2022
- Named head of the Montreal police.