Vehicle theft | The SPVM wants to create its specialized squad

In 2023, nearly 12,000 vehicles were stolen in the territory of the Montreal Police Department. To tackle this scourge, which several stakeholders describe as a “national crisis”, the SPVM took steps with the Quebec government and other law enforcement agencies to create a squad entirely dedicated to vehicle theft. , has learned The Press.

“We think it would be important to bring back to the SPVM a specialization in vehicle theft among other things because it is a specialized crime, because the investigators must be trained, because we want to obtain superior sentences in court and because we want to align with other police forces in Quebec and Ontario,” says Yannick Desmarais, commander of South project investigations and responsible for the fight against vehicle theft at the SPVM.

Mr. Desmarais also wants to highlight another problem linked to vehicle thefts: the money obtained by thieves is used to buy illegal firearms.

“Currently, the SPVM works at two levels: on the street, with patrol officers, and on short-term and medium-scale investigations. The mandate that we would give to the future team would be to continue this work, but also to carry out medium or long-term and larger-scale investigations which would target exporters of stolen vehicles,” specifies the officer.

To do this, the new squad would benefit from all means of investigation, even the most important, such as electronic surveillance.

Proceeds of Crime investigators would also be called upon to ensure that property used in the offenses is blocked and possibly confiscated.

Funding and partners sought

Commander Yannick Desmarais specifies that steps will first be made with other law enforcement agencies such as the Ontario Provincial Police, the Canada Border Services Agency and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). so that they are represented within this squad.

Once this is confirmed, steps will be taken with other police forces such as the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), the Laval police service and the Longueuil agglomeration police service.

Mr. Desmarais points out that the Ontario government has paid more than $50 million to Ontario police forces to fight vehicle theft.

“For the moment, we are campaigning for additional funds from the government with the aim of creating this permanent and specialized squad,” said the officer, who refuses, for the moment, to say how much the requested amount amounts to.

The premises where this new squad will be housed have already been found and secured.

Mr. Desmarais even hopes that it will be in operation before the summer. “We are ready,” he announces.

At the time of the SPCUM

Such a squad, called VVM-Cargo (for theft of motor vehicles and cargo), already existed at the time when the SPVM was called the Montreal Urban Community Police Service (SPCUM), but it disappeared in the early 2000s because we needed our staff elsewhere.

Until recently, SPVM police officers were part of a team made up of SQ investigators and a member of the RCMP, but the Montreal investigators had to withdraw due to a lack of staff in other sectors, explains Mr. Desmarais.

For the moment, at the SPVM, there are investigators from different sections who, through their other mandates, investigate vehicle thefts.

“Currently, we are doing the best we can with the resources we have, depending on the priorities we have,” laments Commander Yannick Desmarais.

“We need a squad specialized in the fight against vehicle theft, but we must work with insurance companies and other partners. It is not only the police who will be able to curb vehicle thefts,” estimates Doug Hurley, former boss of the SPCUM VVM squad, now mayor of the borough of L’Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève.

National summit to combat vehicle theft

“We can only applaud the creation of a specialized squad at the SPVM. This would be a major and prolific change in the fight against vehicle theft in Montreal,” rejoices Jacques Lamontagne, director of investigations for Équité Association, Quebec and Maritimes regions.

Équité Association is the former investigations department of the Insurance Bureau of Canada.

Mr. Lamontagne is a retired SPVM investigator who previously worked in a unit dedicated to cargo theft.

When The Press met him this week, Commander Yannick Desmarais had just learned that he would be present, along with Inspector James Paixao and the director of the SPVM, Fady Dagher, at the National Summit to fight against vehicle theft which will have take place in Ottawa next week.

The trio intends to present possible solutions, an overview of which you will find opposite.

To contact Daniel Renaud, call 514 285-7000, ext. 4918, write to [email protected] or write to the postal address of The Press.

Possible solutions proposed by the SPVM

For the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions

• Create a team of prosecutors specializing in vehicle theft

For the legislator

• Update the Criminal Code and add articles, particularly on the export of stolen vehicles

• Increase the severity of penalties while making a distinction between vehicle thieves, who in some cases are minors, and network leaders

For the Port of Montreal, a hub for the export of stolen vehicles

• Clarify the responsibilities of the SPVM and the Canada Border Services Agency

• Review logistics with the aim of inspecting more containers

For Transport Canada

• The latest updates date from 2007; ensure that vehicle manufacturers are required to install tracking systems

For insurance companies

• Standardize rules between provinces

• Publish monthly the list of vehicles most often stolen in Quebec and Canada

For Interpol

• Increase collaboration to find vehicles stolen in Canada and sent to other countries, and repatriate them

For the RCMP

• Improve coordination between the federal police and the main police forces of Canada and Quebec