A team of civilian psychosocial workers deployed in the fall of 2021 in downtown Montreal to defuse crisis situations instead of the police will soon be present in two other boroughs of Montreal, in addition to being active 24 hours a day. out of 24 as part of a pilot project.
Currently present in Ville-Marie and Le Sud-Ouest, the Mobile Mediation and Social Intervention Team (EMMIS) will extend its field of intervention in the next few months to the boroughs of Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve and Plateau-Mont. -Royal, will announce the City of Montreal on Wednesday morning. The executive committee will approve the awarding of a contract for nearly $2.6 million to the Société de développement social, the organization responsible for this team.
The City thus intends to quietly move closer to its objective of extending the presence of this team to the entire territory of Montreal. Already, since September 2021, the 14 members of EMMIS have carried out more than 10,000 interventions, mainly with vulnerable people, in particular homeless or intoxicated people.
These social workers can go to the field on their own initiative or at the request of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), which transfers calls to them ordering the defusing of crisis and conflict situations in the area. public where the presence of a police officer is not necessary. They also respond “to the concerns of the general public directly affected by the consequences of an unexpected occupation of public space”, underline decision-making documents from the City.
“It’s a service that everyone appreciates,” notes the To have to the head of public security on the executive committee, Alain Vaillancourt. The latter notes that the team intervenes with people in crisis without resorting to any form of police “repression”. “It’s not part of the SPVM,” he recalls.
Upcoming jobs
By expanding the presence of EMMIS to two other boroughs in the city, the City plans to hire 18 additional workers to bring the team to 32 members within a few months.
Of the lot, four workers will be present in the four targeted boroughs at night, from midnight to 9 a.m., which ensures activity 24 hours a day as part of a pilot project that will last until the end of the year. However, it should not be launched before the end of April, in particular because the City must first hire and train these workers, and this, in the midst of a labor shortage.
“It will take a few months before everything is in place,” admits Mr. Vaillancourt. The contract that the City intends to grant also plans to increase the number of cars rented from two to four to meet the needs of this mobile team.
In all, a sum of $50 million has been earmarked over five years for the financing of EMMIS, which is provided by the City of Montreal and the Ministry of Public Security.