Montreal police, trust and accountability
Closing Station 11 isn’t going to help matters, Sue Montgomery writes.
This week, our borough of Côte-des-neiges—notredame-de-grâce unanimously adopted a motion calling on the city to require Montreal police officers to wear body cameras, which can provide important evidence for fair disciplinary or legal hearings — both for citizens and police.
This, like community policing, is a concrete step to improve the broken public trust in our police services. This is how we hold the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) accountable.
It’s been over a week since the world witnessed the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. We watched in horror the viral video of him lying face down and handcuffed under the knee of a police officer. The world has rightfully erupted in anger and anguish over yet another senseless death of a black man at the hands of the police.
Sadly, our own city has a tragic history of police violence against black men, including in C.D.N.—N.D.G.
More than 30 years ago, an unarmed black teenager named Anthony Griffin was shot in the head in N.D.G. As a journalist, I covered the trial of the police officer who killed Griffin and witnessed the disappointment and outrage when he was acquitted.
Since then, there have been several more deaths at the hands of police. In 2018, another young black man, Nicholas Gibbs, was shot dead in N.D.G.
Right now, many people are angry at the police and don’t trust them, and I fully understand why. One important way to help build trust is through community policing. And yet, here in N.D.G., we are losing our local station.
The solution is not to move police officers farther from our community — in this case, in a merged station at the confines of N.D.G, Côte-st-luc and Montreal West. Officers belong in our community. They must get to know our residents: those who struggle with mental illness, addictions, poverty, abuse. The elderly. The lonely. The vulnerable.
Community policing is about being with and from the community. It’s about the police service addressing ongoing problems in a proactive way rather than reacting when things get out of hand. We need to find a better way forward than tear gas, rubber bullets and batons.
The calls for police accountability are growing louder. My voice is there too.
The SPVM must be accountable to the municipal council and to all Montrealers. As elected officials, we have a duty to oversee the police. Mayor Valérie Plante’s administration, however, has done the opposite in allowing the police to close our local station, calling it an administrative decision.
Simply put, an opportunity arose to merge Station 11 in N.D.G. with Station 9 in C.S.L., and the SPVM jumped on it. After all, the lease for Station 11 was coming to an end. So what if the location, by their own admission, isn’t ideal?
There was no forum for the people served by Station 11 to have their say about a move that directly affects their lives and sense of security. We have been provided with no data or evidence that this move will benefit anyone.
Almost 3,000 residents signed a petition initiated by the NDG Community Council. And yet, the two Projet Montréal councillors in N.D.G. — Peter Mcqueen and Christian Arseneault — voted against the residents’ request for a one-year moratorium on the merger so they could be consulted.
In this matter and others, the people of C.D.N.—N.D.G. want and will do their best to hold the SPVM accountable:
Accountable for closing a police station without proper consultation and public hearings.
Accountable for the unjustified and discriminatory street checks that target Indigenous, black and Arab people.
Accountable for failing to acknowledge the demands, interests and feelings of the people who want a police service that works for and with them.