Service de police de la Ville de Montréal

Service de police de la Ville de Montréal
Common name Montreal Police Service
Abbreviation SPVM

Logo of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal
Agency overview
Formed March 15, 1843
Annual budget C$ 587 million (2014)
Legal personality Governmental: Government agency
Jurisdictional structure
General nature
Operational structure
Headquarters 1441 Saint Urbain Street, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Sworn members 4,600[1] (2009)
Unsworn members 1,600[1] (2009)
Elected officer responsible Martin Coiteux, Ministre de la Sécurité publique
Agency executive Philippe Pichet, Director of Police
Facilities
Neighborhood Stations 33
Website
www.spvm.qc.ca/

The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) (French for Montreal Police Service) is the police force for the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada and the neighboring communities in the Urban agglomeration of Montreal. With about 4,600 officers and 1,600 civilian staff, it is the second largest municipal police agency in Canada after the Toronto Police Service and second largest in the province behind the Sûreté du Québec.

History

The Montreal Police Service was created on March 15, 1843. At that time, there were 51 police officers in Montreal. The first officers did not wear uniforms. In order to be recognizable as police officers by civilians, the first uniforms were created in 1848. In 1853, they won the right to carry firearms in the performance of their duties.

In the early twentieth century, the Montreal Police Service counted 467 constables, inspectors and managers. The force was subdivided, as squads of morality and local departments were created.

The size of the police force remained roughly the same from the beginning of the century until 1930, when it hired more staff in the context of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. During the Great Depression, tens of thousands of workers lost their jobs and there was an increase in crime. In the late 1930s, the Montreal Police Service had about 1,500 employees.

Following the progress of scientific analysis, a mobile laboratory was created in 1957. It evolved and changed in the 1980s to become the technical section.

The Museum of the Montreal Police (French: Musée de la police de Montréal) was established in 1992 to preserve the history of the Montreal Police Service.[2]

Chiefs of Police

Pierre Bélanger, Director from 1921 to 1928.

The following is a list of the Chiefs and Directors of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal.[3]

No. Name Term start Term end
1. Alexandre Comeau 1843 1844
2. Thomas Wiley 1844 1849
3. Hippolyte Jérémie 1849 1850
4. Thomas McGrath 1850 1853
5. Chas. O. Ermatinger 1853 1854
6. Moses Judah Hayes 1854 1861
7. Guillaume Lamothe 1861 1865
8. Fred A. Penton 1865 1879
9. Hercule Paradis 1879 1888
10. George A. Hughes 1888 1900
11. David Legault 1901 1904
12. Olivier Campeau 1904 1918
13. Joseph Tremblay (interim) 1918 1918
14. Pierre Bélanger 1919 1928
15. Hulbrit Langevin 1928 1931
16. Fernand Dufresne 1931 1946
17. Charles Barnes (interim) 1947 1947
18. Albert Langlois 1947 1954
19. T.O. Leggett (interim) 1954 1956
20. Pacifique Plante (interim) 1956 1956
21. Albert Langlois 1957 1961
22. Ernest Pleau (interim) 1961 1961
23. Adrien J. Robert 1961 1965
24. Jean-Paul Gilbert 1965 1970
25. Marcel Saint-Aubin 1970 1971
26. Jean-Jacques Saulnier 1971 1971
27. Maurice Saint-Pierre (interim) 1972 1972
28. René Daigneault 1972 1977
29. Henri-Paul Vignola 1977 1981
30. André De Luca 1982 1985[4]
31. Roland Bourget 1985 1989[5]
32. Alain Saint-Germain 1989 1994
33. Jacques Duchesneau 1994 1998
34. Claude Rochon (interim) 1998 1998
35. Michel Sarrazin 1998 2005
36. Yvan Delorme 2005 2010
37. Marc Parent 2010 2015
38. Philippe Pichet 2015 Present

Organization

The headquarters of the SPVM on Saint Urbain Street.
A police officer patrolling at Place-d'Armes Metro Station.

The force is led by Director of Police Philippe Pichet .

The rank structure and current strength of the force is:

[6] [7]

Some of the police functions carried out by the service, include:

SPVM also has about 1,000 civilian employees, as well as about 200 police cadets.

Operations

The SPVM covers an area of about 496 square kilometres and 1,800,000 residents of the Greater Montreal area.

There are 33 police stations that operate within four geographical regions: East, West, North and South.

Other units of the SPVM, include:

Fleet

A Dodge Charger vehicle

Equipment

The standard sidearm of the Montreal Police is the Walther P99 in QA (Quick Action) variant. Remington 870 shotguns、FN P90 sub-machine guns are also stocked in SPVM and its SWAT armory, but the long arms are rarely used.

Criticism

On 3 November 2005, the United Nations Human Rights Committee advised the Canadian government to allow an enquiry on the SPVM about its mass arrests tactic during political demonstrations.[8][9][10][11] The tactic is a rapid encirclement of as many protesters as possible regardless of how they may have conducted themselves during the demonstration, and is argued to be a violation of their fundamental rights.[12] According to Francis Dupuis-Déri, a political science professor at Université du Québec à Montréal, police officers employ this tactic because of a "deviance" radical political demonstrators pose to media, politicians and police officers themselves.[13] The SPVM was once again criticized in the aftermath of the August 10, 2008 riots, which started due to the shooting death of 18-year-old immigrant Fredy Alberto Villanueva by an officer who alleged that Villanueva was attacking him and his partner while they were arresting Villanueva's older brother. He argued that he was trying to save his partner and himself by firing his Walther P99 service gun on 18-year-old Fredy Villanueva.[14]

In 2012, the SPVM also came under criticism regarding their handling of the 2012 Quebec student protests.[15]

Former Montreal police officer Stéfanie Trudeau was given a 12-month suspended sentence and ordered to do 60 hours of community service for assaulting a man in October 2012. Trudeau, known as "Officer 728" for her badge number, was found guilty of assault in February 2016 for using excessive force when arresting Serge Lavoie outside his home. Quebec Court Judge Daniel Bédard said Trudeau was the instigator in the illegal arrest, and the situation escalated because of her conduct. He noted that Lavoie did not pose a threat to Trudeau and her patrol partner.[16]

Investigative body criticized for lack of diversity and for proximity to law enforcement

In June 2016, the Quebec Minister of Public Security introduced an independent agency, the "Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes (BEI)," to be responsible for investigating "shootings, serious injuries and deaths stemming from police interventions."[17] The selection of investigators was immediately and widely criticized for being composed of former members law enforcement.[18] Eleven out of the eighteen members are former police officers,[19] in addition to being "nearly 100 per cent white and composed almost entirely of men."[19] Furthermore, the structure of the agency itself was criticized for lacking independent powers, since the BEI "acts only at the request of the Minister of Public Security."[19][20]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Rapport annuel 2010" (PDF, 663 KB) (in French). Service de police de la Ville de Montréal. 2011. p. 3. Retrieved 2011-09-11.
  2. ↑ "Musée de la police: About the Museum". Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal. Retrieved 26 December 2012.
  3. ↑ "Chefs/Directeurs de police de la Ville de Montréal" (PDF). Service de police de la Ville de Montréal. Retrieved 10 February 2014.
  4. ↑ Johnston, David (1985-02-02). "Strife between top Montreal cops as Bourget takes over as chief of force". The Gazette (Montreal). Retrieved 15 November 2012.
  5. ↑ "Roland Bourget est décédé". Agence QMI. 2010-09-13. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
  6. ↑ Insignia
  7. ↑ http://www.spvm.qc.ca/upload/documentations/2013AnnualReport.pdf
  8. ↑ "L'ONU interpelle le Canada, responsable de plusieurs violations des droits et libertés". "Ligue des droits et libertés". 2005-11-03. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
  9. ↑ "L'ONU se penche sur les méthodes du SPVM". "LCN". 2005-11-03. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
  10. ↑ "Montreal police reprimanded by UN". "The Hour". 2005-11-10. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
  11. ↑ "Arrested victory". "The Mirror". 2007-06-13. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
  12. ↑ "L'ONU blâme la police de Montréal". "Le Couac". 2006. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
  13. ↑ Dupuis-Déri, Francis. "Broyer du noir: manifestations et répression policière au Québec", Les ateliers de l'éthique vol. 1, num. 1, printemps 2006,. p. 59-80
  14. ↑ "Family 'destroyed' by death of Montreal man shot by police". CBC News. 2008-08-15.
  15. ↑ "I'm Not a Quebec Protester, But Police Assaulted Me Anyway". "Huffington Post". 2012. Retrieved 2012-05-28.
  16. ↑ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/officer-728-assault-sentence-1.3600799
  17. ↑ "Quebec's independent investigation unit called out for lack of diversity". Retrieved 2016-07-14.
  18. ↑ "L'autonomie du BEI est remise en question". Retrieved 2016-07-14.
  19. 1 2 3 "Ex-cops dominate new agency that investigates police shootings". 2016-06-28. Retrieved 2016-07-14.
  20. ↑ "Mandate and Powers - Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes". www.bei.gouv.qc.ca. Retrieved 2016-07-14.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/3/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.