The (SQ; , ) is the
provincial police service for the
Canadian province
Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...
of
Quebec
Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
. There is no official English name, though the agency's name is sometimes translated as Quebec Provincial Police (QPP) and Quebec Police Force (QPF) in English-language sources. The headquarters of the are located on Parthenais Street in
Montreal
Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
's
Sainte-Marie neighbourhood, and the service employs over 5,700 officers. The SQ is one of three provincial police services in Canada, alongside the larger
Ontario Provincial Police
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) is the State police, provincial police service of Ontario, Canada. The OPP patrols Provincial highways in Ontario, provincial highways and waterways; protects Government of Ontario, provincial government buil ...
and smaller
Newfoundland Constabulary, and the third-largest
police service in Canada (behind the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; , GRC) is the Law enforcement in Canada, national police service of Canada. The RCMP is an agency of the Government of Canada; it also provides police services under contract to 11 Provinces and terri ...
and the Ontario Provincial Police).
Function
The primary function of the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) is to enforce provincial laws, some municipal bylaws, the federal ''
Criminal Code
A criminal code or penal code is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of, a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that might ...
'' and many other laws throughout Quebec, and to assist municipal police services when needed.
At the local level, the SQ is responsible for providing
local police
Municipal police, city police, or local police are Law enforcement agency, law enforcement agencies that are under the control of local government. This includes the Municipality, municipal government, where it is the smallest Administ ...
services to
municipalities
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality' ...
that chose not to have their own police department (mostly localities with populations under 50,000), in exchange for payment relative to their size. In other cities, the Sûreté du Québec can also take over criminal investigations from municipal police services when required by the ''Police Act'' of the province, according to the severity of the crime and the size of the population (''e.g.'', the SQ will take in charge any homicide with no imminent arrests in a city of less than 250,000, even if it has its own police department). The SQ is usually present in smaller, rural or suburban communities, and it is not usually visible on the streets of large urban centres like
Montreal
Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
and
Quebec City
Quebec City is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Census Metropolitan Area (including surrounding communities) had a populati ...
, whose own police departments must provide a wide range of services and operations by law. In those cities, however, the SQ still has large offices where various investigations are conducted.
At the provincial level, the SQ is responsible for actions such as patrolling the
highways of Quebec, preserving the integrity of governmental institutions, coordinating large-scale investigations (such as during the
biker war in the 1990s), and maintaining and sharing the
criminal intelligence database of Quebec with other services. In addition, the SQ can provide
technical assistance to Quebec's independent investigation unit (BEI) in any incident involving possible wrongdoing by another police department, such as
deaths
Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sho ...
and serious injuries. Should the SQ be involved in such an incident, assistance (if needed) will be provided either by the police service
of Montreal
of Montreal is an American indie pop band from Athens, Georgia. It was founded by frontperson Kevin Barnes in 1996, named after a failed romance between Barnes and a woman "of Montreal". The band is identified as part of the Elephant 6 collec ...
or
of Quebec City.
History
On February 1, 1870, the Quebec provincial government created the ''Police provinciale du Québec'' under the direction of its first commissioner, Judge Pierre-Antoine Doucet. This new service took over the headquarters of the
Quebec City
Quebec City is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Census Metropolitan Area (including surrounding communities) had a populati ...
municipal police, which were then disbanded, although the city relaunched a municipal service in 1877.
In 1900, two distinct provincial police services were created: the Office of Provincial Detectives of
Montreal
Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
, in response to a crime wave in that city, and the Revenue Police, whose mission was to collect taxes. In 1902, the government decided that the provincial police should no longer be directed by a judge but by an officer of the police themselves. Augustin McCarthy was chosen as the first chief drawn from the ranks of the police.
In 1922, two headquarters were established, one in Quebec City, headed by McCarthy, and one in Montreal, headed by Dieudonné Daniel Lorrain. The Office of Provincial Detectives of Montreal became part of the general provincial police in that year. The Quebec division included 35 police officers and two detectives.
In 1925, police officers started patrolling on motorcycles. In 1929 and 1930, the structure of the service was reformed and the agency adopted a new name as '' Sûreté provinciale du Québec'' which was later shortened to its present name.
Oka Crisis
A significant local, provincial, national and
First Nations
First nations are indigenous settlers or bands.
First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to:
Indigenous groups
*List of Indigenous peoples
*First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...
crisis erupted in 1990 after SQ officers attempted to enforce a court order on the
Mohawks
The Mohawk, also known by their own name, (), are an Indigenous people of North America and the easternmost nation of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy (also known as the Five Nations or later the Six Nations).
Mohawk are an Iroquoi ...
of
Oka, Quebec
Oka is a small village on the northern bank of the Ottawa River (''Rivière des Outaouais'' in French), northwest of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Located in the Laurentian Mountains, Laurentians valley on Lake of Two Mountains, where the Ottawa has ...
. SQ Corporal Marcel Lemay was killed by gunfire in the initial raid (likely by friendly fire ), and a 77-day standoff ensued.
Montebello incident
The Sûreté du Québec admitted in August 2007 that they had used undercover police posing as protestors at the 2007
Montebello Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America meetings. This admission was made after a video captured by protestors was widely circulated in the Canadian media and made available on
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
. The video appeared to show one of the officers carrying a rock, suggesting that the police may have been acting as
inciting agents by inciting violence.
Chiefs and directors-general
Districts
# Bas-Saint-Laurent-Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine
# Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean
# Capitale-Nationale-Chaudière-Appalaches
# Mauricie-Centre-du-Québec
# Estrie
# Montréal-Laval-Laurentides-Lanaudière
# Outaouais
# Abitibi-Témiscamingue-Nord-du-Québec
# Côte-Nord
# Montérégie
Rank badges
Rank insignia of the Sûreté du Québec are contained on slip-on sleeves, worn on the epaulettes of uniform jacket or shirt shoulders.
Constables (Agent) do not have any insignia on their uniform. The SQ formerly had the rank of
Corporal
Corporal is a military rank in use by the armed forces of many countries. It is also a police rank in some police services. The rank is usually the lowest ranking non-commissioned officer. In some militaries, the rank of corporal nominally corr ...
above Constable rank. Team leaders have an epaulette with the words ''Chef d'équipe''.
Uniforms
Early uniforms were British in origin, including the use of the
custodian helmet
The custodian helmet is a type of helmet worn predominantly by male police officers in the United Kingdom and within certain other places around the world. First used by the Metropolitan Police in London in 1863, the BBC labelled the custodian h ...
, with the
kepi
The kepi ( ) is a cap with a flat circular top and a peak, or visor. In English, the term is a loanword from , itself a re-spelled version of the , a diminutive form of , meaning . In Europe, the kepi is most commonly associated with French ...
later added as well. The service adopted a uniform with a more distinct green tone, as well as a
peaked cap
A peaked cap, peaked hat, service cap, barracks cover, or combination cap is a form of headgear worn by the armed forces of many nations, as well as many uniformed civilian organisations such as law enforcement agencies and fire departments. It d ...
, in the 1960s.
The emblem of the service changed in the 1970s, when the old provincial coat of arms gave way to the fleur-de-lis.
In late 2016, Martin Prud'Homme, Director General of the SQ, announced the uniforms would be changed. Shirts and coats will be of a darker shade of
olive
The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'' ("European olive"), is a species of Subtropics, subtropical evergreen tree in the Family (biology), family Oleaceae. Originating in Anatolia, Asia Minor, it is abundant throughout the Mediterranean ...
green; patches, caps, and bulletproof vests will become black, and pants blue-black. One of the justifications for the changes was that the old green uniform was too similar to that of a soldier's.
Crise d'Oka - SQ et forces canadiennes.jpg, Uniform of early 1990s, during the Oka Crisis
The Oka Crisis (), also known as the Mohawk Crisis or Kanehsatà:ke Resistance (), was a land rights, land dispute between a group of Mohawk people and the town of Oka, Quebec, Canada, over plans to build a golf course on land known as "The Pin ...
Frontière.JPG, An SQ agent with a pre-2016 uniform observing the border
Borders are generally defined as geography, geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by polity, political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other administrative divisio ...
with an RCMP
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; , GRC) is the Law enforcement in Canada, national police service of Canada. The RCMP is an agency of the Government of Canada; it also provides police services under contract to 11 Provinces and terri ...
officer
Sûreté du Québec riot police.jpg, Riot gear ( 2012 student protests, Montreal)
Fleet
Beginning progressively in 2017, marked patrol cars are set to become black with white doors, on which the word "POLICE" will be more evident.

Cars:
*
Chevrolet Impala
The Chevrolet Impala () is a full-size car that was built by Chevrolet for model years 1958 to 1985, 1994 to 1996, and 2000 to 2020. The Impala was Chevrolet's popular flagship passenger car and was among the better-selling American-made auto ...
*
Chevrolet Tahoe
The Chevrolet Tahoe (), and its Rebadging, badge-engineered GMC Yukon counterpart, are full-size SUVs and other trucks from General Motors, offered since 1994 and 1991, respectively. Since 1982, Chevrolet and GMC (General Motors division), GMC ...
*
Dodge Charger
The Dodge Charger is a model of automobile marketed by Dodge in various forms over eight generations since 1966.
The first Charger was a show car in 1964. A 1965 Charger II concept car resembled the 1966 production version.
In the United Sta ...
*
Ford Police Interceptor Utility
The Ford Explorer is a range of Sport utility vehicle, SUVs manufactured by Ford Motor Company since the 1991 model year. The first five-door SUV produced by Ford, the Explorer, was introduced as a replacement for the three-door Ford Bronco II ...
*
Ford Taurus
The Ford Taurus is an automobile that was manufactured and marketed by the Ford Motor Company in the United States from 1985 to 2019. From 1985 to 2009, Ford marketed the Taurus alongside its rebadged variant, the Mercury Sable. Four generati ...
Trucks:
*
Dodge Dakota
The Dodge Dakota, marketed as the Ram Dakota for the final two years of production, is a Pickup truck#Mid-size pickups, mid-size pickup truck manufactured by Chrysler and marketed by its Dodge Truck division (model years 1987-2009) and later its R ...
*
Ford E-250
*
Ford F-350
*
Ford F-450
The Ford Super Duty (also known as the Ford F-Series Super Duty) is a series of heavy-duty pickup trucks produced by the Ford Motor Company since the 1999 model year. Slotted above the consumer-oriented Ford Ford F-Series, F-150, the Super Duty ...
*
Ram
Ram, ram, or RAM most commonly refers to:
* A male sheep
* Random-access memory, computer memory
* Ram Trucks, US, since 2009
** List of vehicles named Dodge Ram, trucks and vans
** Ram Pickup, produced by Ram Trucks
Ram, ram, or RAM may also ref ...
2500 pickup
Motorcycles:
* BMW
police motorcycle
A police motorcycle is a motorcycle used by police and law enforcement. They may be custom designed to meet the requirements unique of a particular use. Units that use motorcycles are often called motorcycle units or motor units, and police offi ...
* Mikado
bicycles
A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike, push-bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, with two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist.
...
Special Vehicles:
*
Prevost Car
Prevost (, ), formally known as Prevost Car, is a Canadian manufacturer of touring coach (bus), coaches and bus shells for high-end motorhomes and specialty conversions. The company is a subsidiary of the Volvo Buses division of the Volvo Group.
...
Command Post
*
Hummer H1 armoured truck
*
International 7500 support vehicle
*
APC
*
Cambli International Thunder 1 ARV (with International 7500 chassis)
Air:
*
Bell 206
The Bell 206 is a family of two-bladed, single- and twin-engined helicopters, manufactured by Bell Helicopter at its Mirabel, Quebec, plant. Originally developed as the Bell YOH-4 for the United States Army's Light Observation Helicopter progr ...
*
Bell 206
The Bell 206 is a family of two-bladed, single- and twin-engined helicopters, manufactured by Bell Helicopter at its Mirabel, Quebec, plant. Originally developed as the Bell YOH-4 for the United States Army's Light Observation Helicopter progr ...
LT
*
Bell 412
The Bell 412 is a utility helicopter of the Huey family manufactured by Bell Helicopter. It is a development of the Bell 212, with the major difference being the composite four-blade main rotor. It is a twin-turbine helicopter that has been ...
Sea:
* Doral
patrol boat
A patrol boat (also referred to as a patrol craft, patrol ship, or patrol vessel) is a relatively small naval ship, naval vessel generally designed for Coastal defence and fortification, coastal defence, Border control, border security, or law ...
* Bombardier
Sea-doo
Wild:
* Bombardier
Ski-doo
Ski-Doo is a brand name of snowmobile manufactured by Bombardier Recreational Products (originally Bombardier Inc. before the spin-off). The Ski-Doo personal snowmobile brand is so iconic, especially in Canada, that it was listed in 17th pla ...
snowmobile
A snowmobile, also known as a snowmachine (chiefly Alaskan), motor sled (chiefly Canadian), motor sledge, skimobile, snow scooter, or simply a sled is a motorized vehicle designed for winter travel and recreation on snow.
Their engines normally ...
*
Grizzly
The grizzly bear (''Ursus arctos horribilis''), also known as the North American brown bear or simply grizzly, is a population or subspecies of the brown bear inhabiting North America.
In addition to the mainland grizzly (''Ursus arctos horr ...
ATV
Equipment
The standard-issue weapon of the SQ are the
Glock
Glock (; stylized as GLOCK) is a brand of polymer- framed, short-recoil-operated, striker-fired, locked-breech semi-automatic pistols designed and produced by Austrian manufacturer Glock Ges.m.b.H.
The firearm entered Austrian military an ...
series of pistols, specifically the ones chambered in 9×19mm Parabellum. Various models have been adopted, such as the usual
Glock 17
Glock (; stylized as GLOCK) is a brand of polymer- framed, short-recoil-operated, striker-fired, locked-breech semi-automatic pistols designed and produced by Austrian manufacturer Glock Ges.m.b.H.
The firearm entered Austrian military an ...
Gen 3, the compact
Glock 19
Glock (; stylized as GLOCK) is a brand of polymer-Receiver (firearms), framed, Recoil operation#Short recoil operation, short-recoil-operated, striker-fired, locked-breech semi-automatic pistols designed and produced by Austrian manufacturer G ...
, and sub-compact
Glock 26. Tactical officers have used the C8CQB rifle, a variant of the
Colt Canada C8 rifle.
Prior to introduction of Glock pistols, officers carried
.357 Magnum revolvers. These were replaced with the Glock 17 in 2001.
Licence Plate Recognition System
The SQ has been using the
LPRS systems since 2009. The objective of the LPRS is to make the streets and highways safer by removing vehicles not authorized to be on the road. The hotlist plate database can consist of the following types:
* unregistered plate (not paid at DMV/SAAQ)
* stolen vehicles
*
AMBER Alert
* wanted vehicles
The LPRS are installed on 10 Sûreté du Québec vehicles. The LPRS integrator is Gtechna. Gtechna is primarily a citations issuance and management software developer which integrates mission critical technologies such as Licence Plate Recognition (LPR) to streamline the enforcement of moving and parking violations.
In popular culture
The Sûreté du Québec has become well known internationally through the fictional
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his colleagues, created by Canadian author
Louise Penny
Louise Penny (born July 1, 1958) is a Canadian author of mystery novels set in the Canadian province of Quebec centred on the work of francophone Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec. Penny's first career was as a radio broa ...
, who lives in Quebec. Penny's works have been recognized in Quebec by her being made a Member of the
Order of Quebec.
The
Three Pines series on Amazon Prime Video, inspired by the books, also includes characters who are police officers with the Sûreté du Québec, including Gamache.
See also
*
Service de police de la Ville de Montréal
The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (, "Montreal Police Service", abbr. SPVM) is the municipal police agency for the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and the neighbouring communities in the urban agglomeration of Montreal. With over 4 ...
Notes
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Surete Du Quebec
Government agencies established in 1870
Law enforcement agencies of Quebec
Organizations based in Montreal
1870 establishments in Quebec
Protective security units