(Montreal) The city of Repentigny announces that it is launching a six-month pilot project aimed at equipping its police department with electric vehicles.
Posted at 6:05 p.m.
The project is implemented by Cyberkar, a Quebec company specializing in high-end technological solutions for emergency vehicles.
According to Jonathan Boivin, business development manager at Cyberkar, this is the first time that an electric patrol car will be entirely designed and manufactured in Quebec.
The project, which consists in particular in equipping a Ford Mustang Mach-E with the necessary paraphernalia, will begin at the end of April.
Municipal authorities hope to give a new image to the police force whose reputation has been tarnished by allegations of racial profiling in recent months. Tensions have been heightened following the death in August of a black resident, Jean-René Junior Olivier.
The 37-year-old was shot dead outside the family home after his mother, who wanted her son taken to hospital for psychiatric treatment, called 911.
An organizational performance advisor for the City of Repentigny, Stéphanie Fortier, says that this project is one of many measures taken by the municipality to improve its relations with citizens.
“The impact of a visual identity, in terms of relations with citizens, can make a difference,” she points out. Mme Fortier adds that studies in Europe have shown that people’s perception of the police can be improved by changing their visual identity.
Mme Fortier mentions that the city intends to make the vehicle known to other police forces in Quebec. “In an ideal world, sufficiently strong interest will reduce the cost of transformation thanks to an economy of scale generated by the purchase of several vehicles,” she says.