The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) is in crisis. The SPVM is struggling to retain its employees. , the SPVM hired 152 police officers, but lost the same number, and among these losses were 42 resignations. We also learn that 1,673 police officers could retire by the end of 2026. With which has been happening since the beginning of the year, the City of Montreal no longer knows where to turn.
However, there is a solution to reduce this shortage of police officers while reducing crime, a solution that would also allow Montreal taxpayers to make significant savings: hire security guards as police auxiliaries.
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The tasks that occupy the most time of the police are administrative tasks. A British Columbia study was coming to . Filling out reports and taking statements following an intervention are tasks which, although infinitely important, do not require the presence of a police officer, in many cases.
A properly trained security guard can do the job very well. If the SPVM delegated a good part of the administrative tasks to security officers, that would free up the police officers and they could perform the most important tasks for the safety of Montrealers.
Tasks that can be delegated
The police could be partially replaced by security guards in several sectors. One of the most striking is the Montreal Metro. Currently, police officers are permanently assigned to the Montreal metro, in addition to STM security officers. By entrusting a good part of these positions to security officers, it becomes possible to free up several police officers who can intervene in the neighborhoods that need it.
Several other such tasks could be delegated in whole or in part to security guards. For example, by integrating security officers into regular police patrols, the SPVM could, at a lower cost, have a greater presence on the ground, while not having to hire twice as many police officers.
A similar calculation can be done for . A team does not need to be made up entirely of police officers: as long as a few police officers are available to mentor security guards, the effectiveness remains the same. Eventually, we would get more policemen who would cover more ground, more effectively.
The results of implementing these practices speak for themselves. In Lincolnshire, UK, the crime rate has administrative duties at security agencies. This practice also saves UK taxpayers millions of dollars every year. In London, the integration of security agencies to help patrol certain neighborhoods has been followed by a 43% drop in crime.
The City of Montreal is at a crossroads: it must both fight the rise in crime and manage taxpayers’ money intelligently. It is only by integrating security guards to help the police that it will be able to solve these two problems.
Olivier Rancourt, economist at the Montreal Economic Institute