The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM; ) is the

municipal police Municipal police, city police, or local police are law enforcement agencies that are under the control of local government. This includes the municipal government, where it is the smallest administrative subdivision. They receive funding ...

agency for the city of

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

, Canada, and the neighbouring communities in the

urban agglomeration of Montreal Montreal is one of the administrative regions of the Canadian province of Quebec. It is also a territory equivalent to a regional county municipality (TE) and a census division (CD), for both of which its geographical code is 66. Prior to the me ...

. With over 4,500 officers and more than 1,300 civilian staff, it is the second-largest municipal police agency in Canada after the

Toronto Police Service The Toronto Police Service (TPS) is a municipal police force in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and the primary agency responsible for providing law enforcement and policing services in Toronto. Established in 1834, it was the first local police ser ...

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 The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange coll ...

. During the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, 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.

Leadership

D Legault, Chef de Police de la Cite de Montreal Photo B (HS85-10-12818)

Pierre Belanger - directeur du Service de la police de Montreal de 1921 a 1928

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

Organization

The SPVM is led by Sophie Roy, interim Director (

chief of police Chief may refer to: Title or rank Military and law enforcement * Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force * Chief of police, the head of a police department * Chief of the boa ...

), who took over in May 2022 from Sylvain Caron after he retired. The rank structure and strength of the SPVM as of 2019 was: * Director (1) * Assistant Director (6) *

Chief Inspector Chief inspector (Ch Insp) is a rank used in police forces which follow the British model. In countries outside Britain, it is sometimes referred to as chief inspector of police (CIP). Usage by country Australia The rank of chief inspector is us ...

(15) *

Inspector Inspector, also police inspector or inspector of police, is a police rank. The rank or position varies in seniority depending on the organization that uses it. Australia In Australian police forces, the rank of inspector is generally the ne ...

(25) *

Commandant Commandant ( or ) is a title often given to the officer in charge of a military (or other uniformed service) training establishment or academy. This usage is common in English-speaking nations. In some countries it may be a military or police ran ...

(68) *

Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...

(47) and Detective Lieutenant (76) *

Sergeant Sergeant ( abbreviated to Sgt. and capitalized when used as a named person's title) is a rank in many uniformed organizations, principally military and policing forces. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and other ...

(365) and Detective Sergeant (641) *

Constable A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in criminal law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. A constable is commonly the rank of an officer within the police. Other peop ...

(3,318) Some of the police functions carried out by the service include: * Patrol police officers * Intervention officers (GI, Riot police) (now called SSIS Section Support et Intervention Spécialisé) * 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 The SPVM also has over 1,000 civilian employees, and around 200 police cadets.

Ranks

;Executive Officers * Director (''Directeur''): 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 * Associate Director (''Directeur-Adjoint''): 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 ;Staff Officers *

(''Inspecteur-chef''): four gold stripes; former insignia of a colonel in the Canadian Army *

(''Inspecteur''): three gold stripes; former insignia of a lieutenant-colonel in the Canadian Army *

Commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain. ...

(''Commandant''): two and-a-half gold stripes; former insignia of a major in the Canadian Army ;Superior Officers *

(''Lieutenant''): one and a-half gold stripes; former insignia of a lieutenant in the Canadian Army ;Officers *

: half gold stripe ;Constables * Senior Constable (''Agent Sénior'') *

(''Agent'') Source:

Operations

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 In the United States, a SWAT team (special weapons and tactics, originally special weapons assault team) is a police tactical unit that uses specialized or military equipment and tactics. Although they were first created in the 1960s to ...

) *

Forensics Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and crimin ...

* Airport Unit at Montréal–Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport * Montréal Metro Unit

Fleet

* Chevrolet Impala 9C1 * Dodge Charger Enforcer *

Ford Police Interceptor Sedan The sixth generation of the Ford Taurus is the final generation of the model range manufactured by Ford (in markets outside of China and the Middle East). Introduced for the 2010 model year, the sixth-generation Taurus is the second generation o ...

Ford Police Interceptor Utility The Ford Explorer is a range of SUVs manufactured by Ford Motor Company since the 1991 model year. The first four-door SUV produced by Ford, the Explorer was introduced as a replacement for the two-door Bronco II. Within the current Ford light ...

Mitsubishi i-MiEV The Mitsubishi i-MiEV (MiEV is an acronym for ''Mitsubishi innovative Electric Vehicle'') is a five-door hatchback electric car produced in the 2010s by Mitsubishi Motors, and is the electric version of the Mitsubishi i. Rebadged variants of ...

BMW R1200RT The BMW R1200RT is a touring or sport touring motorcycle that was manufactured from 2005 to 2019 by BMW Motorrad to replace the R1150RT model. It features a flat-twin engine with a six-speed gearbox and shaft drive. History Previous RT models, ...

* Harley-Davidson Electra-Glide * Ford E-450 *

Ford F-150 The Ford F-Series is a series of light-duty trucks marketed and manufactured by Ford since the 1948 model year. Slotted above the Ford Ranger in the Ford truck model range, the F-Series is marketed as a range of full-sized pickup trucks. ...

* Ford F-450 Super Duty *

Ford Escape The Ford Escape is a compact crossover SUV sold by Ford since 2000 over four generations. The first generation was jointly developed with Mazda which also created the Mazda Tribute and Mercury Mariner as the twin model. Second generations of t ...

Ford Transit The Ford Transit is a family of light commercial vehicles manufactured by the Ford Motor Company since 1965, primarily as a cargo van, but also available in other configurations including a large passenger van (marketed as the Ford Tourneo in ...

Dodge Grand Caravan The Chrysler minivans are a series of minivans that have been produced and marketed by the American automaker Chrysler since the 1984 model year. Currently in its sixth generation, the model line is marketed worldwide, primarily in North Ameri ...

* RAM 2500 Heavy Duty * RAM 3500 Heavy Duty * RAM Promaster *

Mercedes-Benz Sprinter The Mercedes-Benz Sprinter is a light commercial vehicle (van) built by Mercedes-Benz Group AG of Stuttgart, Germany as a large van, chassis cab, minibus, and pickup truck. In the past, the Sprinter had been sold under the Mercedes-Benz, Dod ...

* Grumman Kurbmaster * Freightliner M2-106 * Thunder-1 (armoured vehicle) * Winnebago Adventurer

Equipment

The standard sidearm of the Montreal Police is the

Glock 19 Glock is a brand of polymer- framed, short recoil-operated, locked-breech semi-automatic pistols designed and produced by Austrian manufacturer Glock Ges.m.b.H. The firearm entered Austrian military and police service by 1982 after it was th ...

Remington 870 The Remington Model 870 is a pump-action shotgun manufactured by Remington Arms Company, LLC. It is widely used by the public for shooting sports, hunting and self-defense, as well as by law enforcement and military organizations worldwide. ...

shotguns and

FN P90 The FN P90 is a compact 5.7×28mm personal defense weapon designed and manufactured by FN Herstal in Belgium. It can also be considered a submachine gun. Created in response to NATO requests for a replacement for 9×19mm Parabellum firearms, th ...

sub-machine guns are also stocked by the SPVM and its Emergency Response Team armory, but these

long guns A long gun is a category of firearms with long barrels. In small arms, a ''long gun'' or longarm is generally designed to be held by both hands and braced against the shoulder, in contrast to a handgun, which can be fired being held with a single ...

are rarely used. Prior to the Glock 19 officers carried the

Walther P99 The Walther P99 () is a semi-automatic pistol developed by the German company Carl Walther GmbH Sportwaffen of Ulm for law enforcement, security forces and the civilian shooting market as a replacement for the Walther P5 and the P88. The P99 an ...

9mm as the sidearm which replaced the

.357 Magnum The .357 Smith & Wesson Magnum, .357 S&W Magnum, .357 Magnum, or 9×33mmR as it is known in unofficial metric designation, is a smokeless powder cartridge with a bullet diameter. It was created by Elmer Keith, Phillip B. Sharpe, and Douglas B. ...

revolvers in the early 2000s.

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. 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. According to Francis Dupuis-Déri, a political science professor at

Université du Québec à Montréal The Université du Québec à Montréal (English: University of Quebec in Montreal), also known as UQAM, is a French-language public university based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the largest constituent element of the Université du Qué ...

, police officers employ this tactic because of a "deviance" radical political demonstrators pose to media, politicians and police officers themselves. The SPVM was criticized in the aftermath of the August 10, 2008 riots, which started due to the shooting death of 18-year-old immigrant by an officer who alleged that the immigrant was attacking him and his partner while they were arresting immigrant's older brother. He argued that he was trying to save his partner and himself by firing his

service gun on the 18-year-old. In 2012, the SPVM also came under criticism regarding their handling of the 2012 Quebec student protests. A former Montreal police officer was given a 12-month suspended sentence and ordered to do 60 hours of community service for assaulting a man in October 2012. The officer was found guilty of assault in February 2016 for using excessive force. 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". The selection of investigators was criticized for being composed of former members law enforcement. Eleven out of the eighteen members are former police officers, in addition to being "nearly 100 percent white and composed almost entirely of men". 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". In January 2021, the SPVM evoked controversy when they mistakenly arrested a

Polytechnique Montréal Polytechnique Montréal () (previously ''École polytechnique de Montréal''; ) is an engineering school affiliated with the Université de Montréal in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In English it may occasionally be referred to as "Montreal Polytech ...

professor in the Park Extension neighbourhood. The man spent six days in prison, before being cleared on charges of disarming and assaulting a police officer, while the actual suspect remains at large. This led to renewed calls for universal

police body camera In policing equipment, a body camera or wearable camera, also known as body-worn video (BWV), body-worn camera (BWC), or bodycam, is a wearable audio, video, or photographic recording system used by police to record events in which law enfo ...

s. Article updated 3 February 2021

References

External links

Official website

Fraternité des policiers et policières de Montréal
{{DEFAULTSORT:Service de police de la Ville de Montreal