The Montreal police are committed to being better connected to the various communities of the metropolis, in order to more effectively prevent armed violence, announced police chief Fady Dagher on Wednesday.
“From 2024, we will reactivate the vigilance structures in the communities to take the pulse of the field and detect in advance the tensions that may emerge,” said the director of the Police Service of the City of Montreal (SPVM), at the opening of the second Forum for the fight against armed violence.
We must be proactive and integrated, we have no choice. We can no longer be content with being reactive. We will take advantage of these vigilance structures to address difficult subjects: racial profiling, arrest and other sensitive subjects for which we must demonstrate humility and openness to find lasting solutions.
Fady Dagher, head of the SPVM
Mr. Dagher also indicated that the SPVM steering committee would now meet in the premises of community organizations in different neighborhoods, in order to be better informed of the issues.
Moreover, the police chief revealed that he was meeting Wednesday morning with representatives of the Jewish and Arab communities of the metropolis, who are worried about being victims of hate crimes in the wake of the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Even if gun violence has fallen by 30% in the metropolis since the start of the year, the community must maintain its efforts to continue to fight and prevent it, underlined the mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante, during the same event.
“We are not giving up,” she said. We are encouraged, but we are not saying that everything is settled. »
Mme Plante recalled that the Montreal model in the fight against armed violence aims to work in prevention as well as repression, particularly among young people, who must be reached before they are drawn onto the path of crime.
The second forum organized on this subject, after the first edition which took place in March 2022, aims to analyze the effectiveness of the measures already put in place and to propose other initiatives to combat violence. The forum continues Thursday.