The arrival of Fady Dagher at the head of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) is undoubtedly good news. Throughout his career in Longueuil and Montreal, Mr. Dagher showed a real interest in new currents of thought in matters of public safety and was able to convince his police officers to support and even implement new programs. . However, the way his career and his philosophy have generally been discussed and dissected so far risks hindering the adoption of a better approach to public safety in Montreal.
Since his appointment as head of the SPVM, Mr. Dagher’s commitment to community policing has earned him a lot of praise, but also a lot of questions about his willingness to resort to repression when the situation calls for it. required. On this specific point, Mr. Dagher has often replied that he is in favor of a “marriage” between prevention and repression, while insisting on the fact that, for him, imposing law and order will be a priority.
The fact that a career police officer like him feels the need to stress that “law and order” is important to him highlights a profound misunderstanding of what community policing is. This is perceived sometimes as a new and innovative approach, sometimes as an alternative to repression. Both perceptions are wrong.
In fact, community policing has been widely practiced in Canada since the 1980s. As early as 1985, the Montreal police adopted a “community relations policy”, quickly implementing a series of new related programs. Between 1986 and 1988, all Montreal police officers followed a training program based on multiculturalism and “initiation” workshops with members of cultural communities. Designed by the famous anthropologist Serge Bouchard, this program aimed to “raise awareness in the police community of respect for differences”, like the Immersion project set up by Mr. Dagher in Longueuil.
Other new programs, including more foot patrols and the creation of “joint advisory committees”, have also been put in place to help police officers build relationships with citizens and seek solutions to security “in consultation” with them. These programs were based on the philosophy and objectives of the RESO (Social and Organizational Support Network) project set up by Mr. Dagher in Longueuil.
Duality
It is important to emphasize that these changes have not diminished the importance of police repression. In fact, they took place alongside the launch of some incredibly repressive programs, including the creation of an anti-gang squad (1989), the establishment of zero tolerance for drug trafficking and possession (1991) as well as leading a brutal campaign against the presence of homeless people in public parks (1994).
Mr. Dagher’s own career presents a similar duality. As commander of the Saint-Michel neighborhood station, he was renowned for his involvement with community organizations and citizens. However, his tenure was marred by the highest rates of racial profiling ever recorded in a study. Thus, between 2006 and 2007, 41% of young blacks in Saint-Michel were arrested by the police. These figures are not solely attributable to Mr. Dagher, but they help to deconstruct the idea that community policing is a substitute for repression.
However, a misunderstanding of what community policing is could seriously harm future discussions on public safety. It could cause every shooting or other violent incident to be blamed on Mr. Dagher’s approach, prompting backlash calls for police crackdowns or more crackdowns when, in fact, the crackdown is already happening.
It could, moreover, ensure that every incident of police violence or racial profiling is seen as a problem that can be solved by Mr. Dagher’s approach, obliterating the fact that this approach has already been in place since the 1980s. .
A necessary step towards creating a safer city for all is ultimately to reduce the role of the police in the lives of citizens, carefully examining the roles they currently play to ask whether another department can handle them better than her. According to Mr. Dagher, 70% to 80% of 911 calls are related to social problems and it “is not true,” he says, “that our police officers are better placed than our partners [communautaires] to answer “.
This is a real innovation. But for it to happen, Mr. Dagher will have to be encouraged to work on it without constantly questioning his desire to resort to repression.