The Service de Police de la Ville de Montreal (SPVM) has doubled the number of police officers simultaneously in three years. Press.
In 2020, 570 Montreal police officers announced that there would be a “copy” against 282 in 2017. In total, SPVM has about 4,600 men and women in uniform.
These are the data that are publicly released by the Service after access to the information request. These data do not include police officers managing rental property on their own behalf.
By email, the SPVM argued that these statements were apparently about police officers with two jobs, but also police officers reporting volunteers to a hockey team or school.
In recent years, SPVM has taken a number of steps to ensure that all its police officers are aware of the legal obligations associated with Section 118. Police Act », Pointed out the organization referring to the text of the law that creates the legal obligation to report his other beliefs. To do this, various communication activities are set up in motion (internal press releases, information meetings, follow-ups, etc.). Witness the efforts made by the statistics of the last few years. ”
The fraternity of the police did not want to comment on this.
A police broker
Although the number of police officers who produced a duplicate report doubled, the total number of such reports increased even faster (a police officer may report more than one “duplicate”).
Nearly 1,000 announcements were recorded by SPVM in 2020 compared to 371 in 2017. However, these data include the management of rental buildings.
“It is important to note that these figures do not take into account the frequency and hours devoted to these parallel occupations,” communications officer Gabriel Fontaine-Xerox explained in an email. “Police officers report any employment, activity or office, other income, educational activities, paid or unpaid activities within non-profit organizations.”
The police copy issue made headlines in 2017, when a violent blizzard on A13 engulfed hundreds of motorists. Press The Sûreté du Québec official also revealed that he was a real estate broker and that he had an appointment with a notary on the day of the storm. However, the report on events does not retain this element as an explanatory factor for the confusion.
Quebec amended its law to completely ban the doubling of work for police officers holding executive positions. In 2017, prior to this change in the rules, 21 SPVM executives held other positions in addition to their police work.
With William Lecklerk, Press
