The fight to end police racism in Montreal has reached an impasse. We have never had more evidence of racism within Montreal’s police force, nor a better understanding of what needs to be done to combat it. Yet the Montreal Police Service (SPVM) and Projet Montréal administration persist in rejecting recommendations from community groups and researchers, and instead resurrecting tired and ineffective reforms.
A wealth of empirical evidence on police racism has been accumulated since the first government investigations in the 1970s. In 2019, for example, a team of independent researchers published a study tracking police stops between 2014 and 2017, which showed that Black and Indigenous people were stopped by Montreal police four times more often than white people.
Last year, the team of researchers published a follow-up study covering the period from 2018 to 2022, and found that racial inequities, far from diminishing, were actually even more pronounced.
In response to these reports, community groups and researchers have called for several informed and effective solutions. A coalition of 80 community groups has called for the reallocation of at least 50% of the SPVM budget to community programs, and 85 groups have expressed support for the abolition of police stops and traffic stops.
The SPVM has rejected each of these recommendations. For example, when the authors of the 2023 report called for a moratorium on arrests, SPVM chief Fady Dagher rejected the request, saying that a “cultural shift” within the institution would be enough to solve the problem. Projet Montréal’s administration has given its support to Fady Dagher’s plan and has made no further statements on the subject.
On July 23, an investigation by the Montreal Journal revealed that the SPVM had interfered in an “independent” study on arrests in order to reduce its scope. Among the tactics used, the SPVM tried to obtain the transcript of confidential interviews with its officers who denounced the racist practices of the service and put pressure on the researchers to refrain from recommending a moratorium on arrests.
It’s easy to understand why Chief Dagher and Projet Montréal are dismissing the demands of community groups and researchers and instead promoting a “cultural shift.” The SPVM began this shift decades ago, adopting a community relations policy in 1985 and implementing a series of policies aimed at better training police officers to eliminate bias, hiring more racialized officers, and building relationships with Black, Indigenous and racialized communities.
Since the 1980s, these same policies have been resurrected every time a crisis arises—and this is strategic. Presenting failed policies as “new” solutions allows the SPVM and the municipal administration to give the impression that they are tackling the problem head on. Meanwhile, racial disparities in policing remain as stark, if not starker, than they were in 1985.
Real solutions to police racism
There are many effective ways to eliminate police racism, but they are based on a very different understanding of public safety. We support three of these measures.
First, as community groups and researchers have long demanded, traffic stops and pullovers must be abolished, and an apology must be issued to the communities harmed by this long-standing practice.
By their nature, stops and interceptions do not require any prior proof that the person targeted has contravened the law — it is sufficient that the police officer “suspects” that the person has committed an offence or is likely to do so. Arbitrary stops have no legal basis, harm public safety rather than enhance it, and give the police discretion that gives rise to abusive behaviour and widespread racial discrimination.
Second, municipal bylaws on “incivility” must be repealed. These bylaws provide penalties for non-threatening behavior such as lying on the ground, urinating on public roads or “loitering.”
When the SPVM began cracking down on what it called “incivility” in 2003, we saw a significant increase in harassment against marginalized people, including Black, Indigenous, and homeless people of all backgrounds, as well as an increase in the number of tickets issued to these populations. Projet Montréal recognized this problem in 2018 and set up a committee of community groups to review and remove the most discriminatory bylaws. These abusive bylaws are still in effect six years later.
Third, public funds invested in policing must be redirected to programs that tangibly improve the well-being and safety of marginalized and racialized populations. For decades, policing has been seen as the solution to every social problem that grabs the public’s attention, from gun violence to homelessness. The result is a vicious cycle where the predictable failure of policing to address systemic problems results in renewed calls for more policing.
These are the measures — and not another “cultural shift” toward the status quo — that the SPVM and Projet Montréal must implement if they want to fight against racism and violence by law enforcement.