Service de police de la Ville de Montréal

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search
Service de police de la Ville de Montréal
Common name Montreal Police Service
Abbreviation SPVM
220x140px
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 Lise Thériault, 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 has 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]

Organization

File:Quartier general Service de police Ville de Montreal.JPG
The headquarters of the SPVM on Saint Urbain Street.

The force is led by Director of Police Philippe Pichet .

The rank structure and current strength of the force is:

  • Directeur (Director) (1) (three gold fleur-de-lis under crest over a crossed gold sword and baton; similar to the former insignia of a lieutenant-general in the Canadian Army)
  • Deputy Director (2) (two gold fleur-de-lis under crest over a crossed gold sword and baton; similar to the former insignia of a major-general in the Canadian Army)
  • Assistant Director (11) (gold fleur-de-lis under crest over a crossed gold sword and baton; similar to the former insignia of a brigadier-general in the Canadian Army)
  • Chief Inspector (18) (four gold stripes; former insignia of a colonel in the Canadian Army)
  • Inspector (28) (three gold stripes; former insignia of a lieutenant-colonel in the Canadian Army)
  • Commander (68) (two and-a-half gold stripes; former insignia of a major in the Canadian Army)
  • Lieutenant (33) and Detective Lieutenant (63) (one and a-half gold stripes; former insignia of a lieutenant in the Canadian Army)
  • Sergeant (445) and Detective Sergeant (595)
  • Constable (3,349)

[3] [4]

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.

Operations

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

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

Other units of the SPVM, include:

Fleet

File:Spvmmetro.jpg
A Dodge Charger vehicle

Chiefs of Police

File:Pierre Belanger - directeur du Service de la police de Montreal de 1921 a 1928.jpg
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.[5]

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[6]
31. Roland Bourget 1985 1989[7]
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 |}

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]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Insignia
  4. ↑ http://www.spvm.qc.ca/upload/documentations/2013AnnualReport.pdf
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  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. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

Retrieved from "https://infogalactic.com/w/index.php?title=Service_de_police_de_la_Ville_de_Montréal&oldid=2013963"