Montreal mayor vows to protect neighbourhood police stations after chief suggests cutting costs

Montreal's mayor insists her administration has no intention of reducing the number of police stations in the city despite the chief's suggestion that scaling back on physical locations could be a cost-cutting measure.

"Neighbourhood policing is very important," said Mayor Valérie Plante during Wednesday's executive council meeting when the topic arose.

"We will never do anything to put that in peril. On the contrary, we want to ensure the link between the local community and police is even stronger."

Closing stations — first mentioned publicly earlier this month as Montreal's 2022 budget was under review — could reduce police operating costs without jeopardizing citizen safety, SPVM police Chief Sylvain Caron told the city's finance committee.

Caron said the police service is over budget and needs a major overhaul. Cutting costs associated with maintaining physical locations would allow the police service to reinvest those funds into developing a stronger police presence, he said.

The suggestion comes as the SPVM looks for ways to limit increases to its already hefty annual budget, set at $724 million for 2022. Total spending on public security now amounts to nearly 18 per cent of the city's budget.

"Public security costs have skyrocketed over the last 20 years, so we really need to modernize our offer, regain some flexibility and ensure a certain presence," Caron told Radio-Canada. "The idea is not to cut service, but to ensure a sustained presence."

He said it's not the physical buildings that ensure security, but the presence of officers. He pointed out that 26 years ago, when the SPVM adopted its community policing model, there was no digital technology that now allows citizens to have access to police services around the clock.

Consultations to get underway

The SPVM intends to consult with outside organizations, boroughs and other island of Montreal municipalities in the coming month, as it studies the feasibility of closing some of its 30 stations.

A plan will then be presented to the city's public security committee in the summer or early fall, Caron said. At this point, he said, it's not clear how many stations, if any, would be cut under the plan.

Plante said Wednesday there has been no official proposal yet and the SPVM is merely looking into the idea.

She said her administration intends to support neighbourhood police stations, and she noted that Caron has floated the idea at a time when the population, like her administration, is preoccupied with public safety.

"We have no intention of reducing or removing neighbourhood police stations," Plante said, promising to host public consultations before any major decision is made.

The chief of police has said the idea of closing stations has been around for some time, leading the municipal opposition to criticize Projet Montréal for keeping the discussion quiet through the recent election campaign.

"Either the administration was hiding something from us, it knew something was coming up, or it was an incompetent administration," said Ensemble Montréal Coun. Abdelhaq Sari, vice-chair of the city's public security committee.

Union president endorses chief's suggestion

The president of the union representing Montreal police officers, Yves Francoeur, said he supports the idea of station closures. He said nearly all of neighbourhood stations are already closed in the evening, at night and on the weekends.

In the fall of 2020, the SPVM merged Station 11 in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce with Station 9 in Côte-Saint-Luc despite strong pushback from community organizations, residents and some local politicians.

Projet Montréal did not stop the move, which raised concerns that the SPVM was moving away from the community policing philosophy it adopted in 1995.

The aim of community policing is to be more proactive, identifying and solving problems at the neighbourhood level by developing partnerships with local organizations and by being more present in the community.

By 1998, there were 49 neighbourhood stations in Montreal. Now there are 31. The SPVM has insisted it isn't moving away from the community policing model, but instead adjusting it for modern times.

Liberal MNA Frantz Benjamin, opposition critic for the Montreal region, said in an open letter that the police chief's suggestion to cut stations is "disturbing" for Montrealers.

"I am surprised that such an avenue is being mentioned in these particularly difficult times when the sense of security of residents of the metropolis is, to say the least, shaken," wrote Benjamin, citing the recent rise in gun violence.

"Our neighbourhood stations are a model that is perfectly integrated into the community living environment."