The Montreal police want to change their approach in the metro. If all goes as planned, its patrol officers will soon stop carrying out regular surveillance there to focus on issues specifically related to crime, while neighborhood stations will respond to emergency calls near the stations.
“It essentially amounts to changing the mandate of our front-line police officers in the metro. Now their approach will be to solve problems related to crime. They will work in synergy with the investigators,” explains The Press the commander of the Montreal Metro Section, Joanne Matte, who wants to get this new project underway by November.
Until now, the 86 metro patrol officers were the only ones at the Montreal City Police Service (SPVM) to respond to emergency calls for violent events in the stations. But “with the increase in homelessness, the lack of housing, the growing addiction to drugs, the situation has changed,” says the police officer.
Soon, the number of patrol officers assigned to the Metro Section will increase to 100, which will allow several police officers “to free themselves from call distribution” to “concentrate on problem solving” and Response Modules. action per project. These are small squads set up by a neighborhood station to resolve a particular problem in a given sector.
Calls made to 911 for events in the network will henceforth be handled by the neighborhood stations (PDQ) located near the stations. In total, 16 PDQs are located near metro stations and will be able to intervene, depending on the location and severity of the event. If necessary, social workers from the Mobile Mediation and Social Intervention Team could also be called upon to participate.
Analyzing
The office of Mayor Valérie Plante recalls that the SPVM plan is still “under analysis”, maintaining that “no compromise will be made regarding user safety”. “No reduction in police numbers is planned […] and the objective is to allow police officers who work in the metro network to respond more effectively to situations,” says press officer Catherine Cadotte.
For its part, the SPVM is convinced of the merits of the measure. “If I take the example of the drug problem in Berri: there, part of the team will be able to work in civilian clothes to arrest drug dealers in order to reduce consumption and calls in this direction. These are models like that that we can consider,” illustrates Commander Matte.
There will be “no less police visibility in the metro,” she assures us.
This is not a elimination of positions, it is rather a sharing of resources. We will be able to act more precisely. This will avoid all the long trips of a police officer who leaves Berri, goes to Cabot Square then to Papineau. There, each of the neighborhood posts will be able to take care of it.
Joanne Matte, commander of the Montreal metro section of the SPVM
Eventually, Mme Matte hopes this transformation will “reduce the number of 911 calls and crime around the stations.” “That’s our primary objective. It is a unique model in Montreal which, we think, will allow us to improve the feeling of security. »
Special constables surprised
The SPVM’s announcement doesn’t just make people happy. At the Fraternity of Constables and Peace Officers STM-CSN, for example, the president, Kevin Grenier, says he is concerned. The special constables of the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) act in complementarity with the SPVM, but do not carry weapons. However, they have been able to make arrests for several years.
“It’s surprising the way it’s done. We understand that they are restructuring their organization, but the impact remains at the level of our workforce. During the winter period, we are already very busy with our calls to vulnerable people and those who commit incivility and crimes. The call volume is growing from year to year,” says Mr. Grenier.
There will have to be “massive and rapid hiring” of constables to prepare for this transition, maintains the union leader.
“We have always been able to adapt to the volume of calls and we will continue to do so […]but hiring is crucial and I think that a clear commitment at this level would reassure customers and my members,” underlines the president.
At the STM, we maintain that “the social context in the metro network has changed considerably”, with, among other things, an “increase in the number of vulnerable people and cases of incivility”.
“Our desire is to increase the safety of all our customers and employees. This change in the situation calls us to review our strategy, the parameters of which remain to be confirmed, to ensure a better response from police officers and special constables,” specifies spokesperson Laurence Houde-Roy.
In the official opposition at Montreal city hall, we are concerned: “Considering the growing feeling of insecurity in the Montreal metro, this decision [n’a] any sense. […] Users expect more security services, not less. While the Plante administration promised in June to remedy the problem, we are back to square one,” denounces public security spokesperson Abdelhaq Sari.