After a hot start to the year, shootings have been down sharply since this summer in Montreal. This lull could even mean that 2022 will see fewer shooting events than last year.
Posted at 12:00 a.m.
While there were 81 murders, attempted murders and discharges of firearms on the island from January to May 2022 inclusive, compared to 60 for the same period last year, the trend has been completely reversed for the months from June to September, according to statistics obtained from the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM).
Thus, for the months of June to September, 105 shooting events occurred in Montreal in 2021 compared to 73 for the same period this year, a decrease of 43.8%.
The decrease is also noticeable when we consider only firearm discharges without victims: there were 68 for the months of June to September in 2021, compared to 42 for the same period this year, a drop of 38% .
17%
Fewer firearms have been seized by SPVM police officers since the beginning of the year compared to the same period in 2021: 384 compared to 465, a decrease of 17%.
While 2022 looked set to be even darker than 2021, there were 154 murders, attempted murders and discharges with firearms between January and September this year, compared to 165 for the same period last year, a decrease of 7%.
The SPVM warns, however, that these are preliminary statistics and that the data is counted each month from the event reports written by the police.
Very clever who could explain the reasons for this drop. Moreover, we do not know what awaits Montrealers during the last three months of the year.
A turning point
Since the beginning of the year, even during the months when there have been fewer shooting events, Montreal has experienced some particularly hot days, notably on August 23, when two men were shot and killed at a half hour apart, one in the Rockland Center parking lot, the other on the terrace of a restaurant on rue Saint-Denis.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Security perimeter established at the Rockland Center on August 23 after a shooting
Following these events, which caused a stir among the population, the interim director of the SPVM, Sophie Roy, and her staff announced the creation of the Stop program.
This is a team made up of about sixty police officers – patrol officers and investigators – assigned exclusively to the seizure of firearms. However, it is still too early to draw up an assessment of this program.
In addition to the police officers of the Stop program, the investigators of the Multisectoral Teams Dedicated to Firearms (EMAF) and Narcotics Squads headed by the Organized Crime Division (DCO) fight against the proliferation of firearms in the metropolis, without forgetting the patrol officers who seize it during routine interventions.
SPVM investigators are also present in the Integrated Arms Trafficking Teams (EILTA), which are the spearhead of the Quebec Centaur strategy announced by the Legault government last year.
Decrease in Laval
A month ago, the Service de police de Laval (SPL) announced a 52% decrease in shooting events on its territory since the beginning of this year compared to the same period the previous year.
The director of the SPL, Pierre Brochet, explained this decrease by the adoption of an intervention strategy this summer which consists in exerting pressure on the problem individuals who are known on Jesus Island.
To reach Daniel Renaud, dial 514 285-7000, ext. 4918, write to [email protected] or write to the postal address of The Press.