Service de police de la Ville de Montréal

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	2017
39.	Martin Prud'homme[6]	2017	2018 (one year interim period)
40.	Sylvain Caron	2018	Present

Police officer patrolling on René-Lévesque Boulevard

The force is led by Director of Police Sylvain Caron,[7] formerly deputy director-general of Sûreté du Québec.[8]

The rank structure and strength of the force as of 2019 was:

• Director (1): three gold fleur-de-lis under crest over a crossed gold sword and baton; similar to the insignia of a lieutenant-general in the Canadian Army
• Assistant Director (6): two gold fleur-de-lis under crest over a crossed gold sword and baton; similar to the insignia of a major-general in the Canadian Army
• Chief Inspector (15): four gold stripes; former insignia of a colonel in the Canadian Army
• Inspector (25): three gold stripes; former insignia of a lieutenant-colonel in the Canadian Army
• Commandant (68): two and-a-half gold stripes; former insignia of a major in the Canadian Army
• Lieutenant (47) and Detective Lieutenant (76): one and a-half gold stripes; former insignia of a lieutenant in the Canadian Army
• Sergeant (365) and Detective Sergeant (641): half gold stripe
• Constable (3,318)[1]

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

• Patrol police officers
• Intervention officers (GI, Riot police)
• Tactical response officers (SWAT)
• Motorcycle officers
• Community relations officers
• Physical surveillance officers (shadowing)
• Section chiefs
• Investigators
• K-9 unit officers
• Mounted patrol officers
• Marine patrol officers
• Patrol supervisors
• Parking enforcement officers

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

Executive Officers

• Director (Directeur)
• Associate Director (Directeur-Adjoint)

Staff Officers

• Chief Inspector (Inspecteur-chef)
• Inspector (Inspecteur)
• Commander (Commandant)

Superior Officers

• Lieutenant (Lieutenant)

Officers

• Sergeant

Constables

• Senior Constable (Agent Sénior)
• Constable (Agent)

Source:[9]

The SPVM covers an area of about 496 square kilometres and 1,958,000 residents of the island of Montreal.

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

Other units of the SPVM, include:

• K-9 section
• Mounted unit
• Nautical patrol
• Crisis management
• Strategic planning
• Emergency Response Team (SWAT)
• Forensics
• Airport Unit at Montréal–Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport

A Ford Taurus vehicle

A Dodge Charger vehicle

A Ford Police Interceptor Utility vehicle in the new SPVM vehicle scheme

A Dodge Charger in the new SPVM vehicle scheme.

• Chevrolet Impala 9C1
• Dodge Charger Enforcer
• Ford Police Interceptor Sedan
• Ford Police Interceptor Utility
• Chevrolet Tahoe PPV
• Mitsubishi i-MiEV
• BMW R1200RT
• Harley-Davidson Electra-Glide
• Ford E-450
• Ford F-150
• Ford F-450 Super Duty
• Ford Escape
• Dodge Grand Caravan
• RAM 2500 Heavy Duty
• RAM 3500 Heavy Duty
• RAM Promaster
• Mercedes-Benz Sprinter
• Grumman Kurbmaster
• Freightliner M2-106
• Thunder-1 (armoured vehicle)

The standard sidearm of the Montreal Police is the Glock 19.[10] Remington 870 shotguns and FN P90 sub-machine guns are also stocked by the SPVM and its Emergency Response Team armory, but these long guns are rarely used.

Prior to the Glock 19 officers carried the Walther P99 9mm as the sidearm which replaced the .357 Magnum revolvers in the early 2000s.

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

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.[11][12][13][14] 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.[15] 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.[16] 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.[17]

In 2012, the SPVM also came under criticism regarding their handling of the 2012 Quebec student protests.[18]

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.[19]

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".[20] The selection of investigators was immediately and widely criticized for being composed of former members law enforcement.[21] Eleven out of the eighteen members are former police officers,[22] in addition to being "nearly 100 percent white and composed almost entirely of men".[22] 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".[22][23]

• Integrated Security Unit
• Police officer
• Royal Canadian Mounted Police
• Service de sécurité incendie de Montréal
• Sûreté du Québec
• Urgences-Santé

• Official website
• Fraternité des policiers et policières de Montréal