Never before seen in Montreal: the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), also shaken by the scourge of vehicle thefts, decided to take the bull by the horns by arriving in Montreal to come and arrest suspects themselves.
“The Ontario Provincial Police carrying out such a large-scale operation in Montreal, I have never seen that in my career,” reacted a police officer from the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), who has almost 20 years of seniority.
MAXIME DELAND/AGENCE QMI
In a terse press release, the Ontario police indicated that an “increased presence” of its police officers would be expected “during the entire week” for the purposes of a “joint operation” carried out in collaboration with the SPVM.
AND AT YOUR HOME ?
Is your municipality often the target of car thieves?
Find out on this map compiled by our Investigation Office, which allows you to locate down to the street, in certain cities, where thousands of vehicles have been stolen in Quebec since the start of the year.
Municipality (number of flights)
Number of flights to the same address
Methodology
This map of vehicle thefts in Quebec covers the year 2023, from January 1 to a date between June 30 and October 12, depending on the city.
The data comes from the Sûreté du Québec, the police service of the City of Montreal, the city of Laval, the city of Longueuil, the police service of the City of Gatineau, the police service of the city of Quebec , from the police service of the city of Lévis, from the police service of Sherbrooke, from the city of Blainville, from the police service of Châteauguay, from the police service from the city of Mascouche, from the city of Granby, from the city of Trois-Rivières, the police department of the city of Bromont, the police department of Lac des Deux-Montagnes, the police department of Memphrémagog, the police department of the city of Saint-Eustache, the police of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, the city of Repentigny, the city of Mirabel, and Équité Association. Some were obtained through access to information.
Note that municipalities may have included vehicles such as motorcycles, trucks or boats in their balance sheet. As for location data, it was transmitted to us in different forms: postal code, street corner, street or neighborhood.
Data compilation: Nora T. Lamontagne and Philippe Langlois, Bureau of Investigation
But, according to our information, the investigation is primarily that of the Ontario Provincial Police.
According to our sources, Ontario police have decided to put an end to the activities of a vast network of vehicle thieves, which would be particularly active on Ontario soil.
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It must be said that, like the metropolis, our Ontario neighbors are grappling with a serious problem of vehicle theft.
A vehicle is stolen every 14 minutes in Ontario and one every 40 minutes in the city of Toronto alone.
MAXIME DELAND/AGENCE QMI
Several arrests have already been made and many others are expected to take place over the coming days, according to our information.
The meeting point for Montreal and Ontario police officers appears to be the SPVM Eastern Operational Center, located along Highway 40, in the Saint-Léonard sector, where the two police forces have temporarily installed their mobile command post .
Ontario authorities plan to take stock of the operation Friday morning, during a press conference to be held in Hawkesbury.