The Montreal Police Could Get Hundreds More Officers If Denis Coderre Becomes Mayor

Denis Coderre's party, Ensemble Montréal, says it would hire 250 more Montreal police officers if it takes power after the November municipal election.

It claims this number represents 84 positions cut since 2017 plus retirements and annual renewals. Ensemble Montréal also raised the possibility of hiring even more officers.

"The realities on the ground have changed a great deal, as have citizens' expectations of the police," Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough mayor candidate Karine Boivin Roy said in a press release.

"For the SPVM to be able to keep up with these realities and demands, police officers must be able to do their job. There are not 1001 ways: we must hire enough people."

Ensemble Montréal has said it would double the number of officers on the SPVM's Psychosocial Emergency Support Team and Mobile Homelessness Referral and Intervention Team.

The new hires are just one of the ways the party plans to augment the police force.

It's also calling for a "major force contingency fund" for "one-time public security events;" an inventory of SPVM vehicles and tools, some of which it says are obsolete; and a restructuring of oversight committees to "bring them to the forefront and to promote fruitful discussions between the communities and the SPVM."

Coderre has long called for body cameras for Montreal police officers. Ensemble Montréal says its administration would launch a call for companies who could supply them.

Finally, the party says it would evaluate public "lighting problems that encourage various forms of trafficking and criminal acts" and start a "broad consultation" on the possibility of placing surveillance cameras in what it calls "hot spots," such as metro stations.

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.