Two former officers of the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) have been sanctioned in ethics for having investigated in 2014 the former mayor of Montreal Denis Coderre.
“The misconduct is serious and serious in the scale of ethical misconduct affecting the maintenance of trust and consideration required by the function”, maintains the Police Ethics Committee in its decision rendered a few days ago.
“The citizen must be able to trust the police services and not fear that an investigation will be carried out without it being founded and that if it is carried out, that it will be done in the rules.”
It all started in “December 2011 or January 2012”, when officer Denis Côté, a neighborhood police officer specializing in road safety, intercepted a non-compliant vehicle. The motorist has not paid his registration fees.
Ben Pelosse / JdeM
Denis Côté, a former SPVM agent, was disqualified for ten months for investigating the former mayor of Montreal, Denis Coderre.
“The driver identifies himself as Denis Coderre and asks him not to give him a ticket,” is it told in the decision rendered by the committee.
Start of an investigation
Finally, it was three years later, in 2014, that Agent Côté began his investigation against the man who had just been elected mayor of Montreal, at the same time that the City of Montreal launched legal proceedings against the Fraternité Montreal police officers.
The man who began his career at the SPVM in 1988 and who was honored for his courage during the shooting at Dawson College in 2006, is then on a break at his police station and watches the news where he learns that a ticket story in Laval involves Denis Coderre.
“He discusses this affair with his colleagues and, teasing him, they tell him that, unlike him, an SPVM policewoman did not hesitate to serve a statement of offense on Denis Coderre,” relates the document.
Constable Côté, with the help of Constable Emmanuel Dupuis, goes in search of the policewoman who gave Mr. Coderre the ticket mentioned in the news.
Two ex-SPVM police officers sanctioned He then poses as “a vigilante for whom only the end justifies the means”.
“His investigation involves analysts at the road safety section and the Brotherhood. Denis Coderre’s personal information is shared with the Fraternity, information is revealed to the media, an investigation by the municipal integrity protection squad is launched as well as an internal investigation.
Penalties
The committee therefore ruled that the two police officers failed to respect their code of ethics, according to which they must “conduct themselves in such a way as to maintain the confidence and consideration [la] function “.
“For agent Côté, it’s about the way he behaved when he decided to investigate a statement of offense from a personality in the middle of municipal politics. As for agent Dupuis, he had a statement of offense traced to help his colleague, without having any reason to participate in the investigation, ”we can read in the decision.
Although he is retired, agent Denis Côté received a ten-month sanction of disqualification from performing his duties.
“What he has been accused of is his recklessness and his impulsiveness and this is not the conduct expected of a police officer in all circumstances. You have to know how to dose”, explains the Committee.
“The agent [Denis] Côté could have, at several points in his approach, taken a step back and analyzed the situation in order to make the appropriate decisions. When a door is closed and there is no emergency, it is not necessary to break it down”, can we read in the decision.
For his part, agent Emmanuel Dupuis received a sanction of four months of disqualification “given his more limited involvement”.