Since Monday and until October 3, officers from the Nunavik Police Service (SPN) have been patrolling the metropolis alongside colleagues from the Montreal Police Service (SPVM) in the hope of creating bonds of trust with the population. Inuit of the city. However, these two weeks will not be enough, warn in an interview with Duty police officers involved in this initiative.
Met during their third day of joint patrol, SPN police officers Ahmed Dahamni and Vincent-Olivier Lalancette both share the opinion that the current project is “embryonic”. According to them, a more lasting solution is necessary to allow the Inuit of Montreal to denounce the criminal groups who are waging a campaign of intimidation against them, the primary goal of the current initiative.
“ [Les membres de] the Inuit community is people who have difficulty giving their trust,” explains Officer Lalancette straight away. “When we arrive in a village and we are a new face, we are a rookie for months. It’s a long time before someone decides to trust us and tell us what their problems are,” adds the police officer who has worked at the SPN for six years now. He notes, however, that once this link is established, it is solid.
Facilitate first contact
Without being able to create bonds of trust in just two weeks, SPN police officers already have a positive impact through their simple presence, especially during a first contact with Inuit people, notes Sergeant Benoît Lafleur, of the SPVM, who accompanies Nunavik patrol officers when they are passing through neighborhood station 5 in Dorval.
As an example, Vincent-Olivier Lalancette recounts an intervention that happened earlier in the day, when Sergeant Lafleur “tried to make initial contact” with a man of Inuit origin. “We saw that apart from a “yes”, he did not want to speak. But afterwards, I spoke to him in Inuktitut and, so, we talked a little more: he gave me his name, told me how he was. »
“In the end, he didn’t want to be disturbed, but he opened up a little more just because I was someone from Nunavik who knows his reality a little more,” he adds. “At first, he just saw two Montreal police officers,” adds Sergeant Lafleur.
Without even speaking Inuktitut, the simple fact of having the SPN logo on their shoulders allows the police to establish a dialogue. “There are still several who recognize the logo, so they feel a little more comfortable talking to us,” says agent Dahamni.
Many Inuit are in Montreal temporarily — for studies, vacations or health care. In three days of patrolling, patrollers Dahamni and Lalancette have both already encountered people from their village, who recognized them.
If the project is a success, the Inuit population of Montreal “will be able to spread the word that there are police officers who are aware of their reality, and who work on a perhaps more regular basis in the north and in Montreal », Hopes Vincent-Olivier Lalancette. “Maybe they will have a new image of the police here. »
Building “a baggage”
According to the first observations of the two Nunavik police officers, Montreal patrol officers are able to “know” the Inuit in their neighborhood. But without knowledge of their “drastically different” reality, it is almost impossible to create a real bond of trust, notes Ahmed Dahamni.
Unable to create such links in two weeks, the visit of the SPN police officers therefore mainly serves to exchange information and build “baggage” for each region, indicates Sergeant Benoît Lafleur. Montreal police officers will thus be better equipped to understand the reality of Inuit people and the learning of the SPN in the metropolis can “be brought back to the North, to do prevention, for example,” explains Officer Dahamni.
With this in mind, SPN police officers are paired with several different neighborhood stations across the island and the pairs, normally made up of a patrol officer from Montreal and one from Nunavik, often change. A bonus to all this: the police can exchange their contacts to “facilitate communication,” says Sergeant Lafleur.
Although the goal of joint patrols is to get closer to Inuit populations, these police duos do not abandon their more traditional patrol work. “It’s certain that if there is an Inuit, we will go and talk to him a little more. Our goal is still to create links with them, we will prioritize that. But we are not going to neglect the other members of society either,” explains Vincent-Olivier Lalancette.
What would constitute “mission accomplished” at the end of the two weeks of this initiative? “To learn that the project is moving forward and that we are trying to put in place a real intervention plan with the two services that could last over time,” says Officer Lalancette. “It could be a great recipe, depending on the feedback that we will have given. »
And there is no shortage of manpower for future collaborations: “almost all” SPN patrol officers have indicated their interest in participating in the initiative, says Ahmed Dahamni.