Police use ‘petty cash’ for investigations

The Montreal police department has been paying thousands of dollars in expenses for “special investigations” from a fund it calls “petty cash” over the past two years, and the biggest and most frequent dips into the till have occurred this year.

The Montreal Gazette discovered the fund, labelled “Petite Caisse Enquête VDM” (“City of Montreal investigation petty cash”), while examining the city’s municipal expenses going back to 2012. However, the first of the 105 expenditures that turn up in municipal records with that label were authorized in January 2015.

Different senior police department personnel authorized the expenditures, which start at $2,000 and which total about $550,000.

In fact, they ’re among $1 million in police expenses that have been justified as “petty cash” in the past two years.

That’s because the Montreal police have also authorized payments using a second “petty cash” label since the fall of 2014, called “Petite Caisse SPVM” (“Petty cash Montreal police department”).

The highest single amounts — $29,638 and $20,436 — that were taken from the “city of Montreal investigation petty cash” were authorized on May 5 and May 30 of this year by assistant Montreal police chief Mario Guérin, whom the Journal de Montréal reported last week was secretly recorded at a meeting with police department management staff in April of this year where he declared a crackdown on leaks to journalists from within the police force.

More than one-third of the 105 “city of Montreal investigation petty cash” expenditures found by the Montreal Gazette were authorized between April and September of this year. The months overlap with the period when the Montreal police were spying on La Presse columnist Patrick Lagacé with warrants that were issued by a justice of the peace to track the phone numbers of his incoming and outgoing calls. Lagacé was not under suspicion, the police told his newspaper several days ago. The police department’s internal affairs division said it sought the warrants as part of an investigation into police officers suspected of criminal offences, including falsifying information for warrants.

Another busy period involving the “city of Montreal investigation petty cash” was June 2015, during which such expenses were authorized 11 times. The police department did not answer the Montreal Gazette’s questions about the petty cash expenses as of late Monday. Among the unanswered questions are: who has the power to authorize petty cash expenses, the spending limit, what the funds may be used for and how long the “petty cash” has existed since the label appears only in recent city records.

The justification for each “petty cash” expense in the records is brief, such as: “Petty cash. Police activities” or “Special investigations. Police activities.” On three occasions, the file concerned the “replenishment of the petty cash” rather than an expenditure. Two of the payment authorizations, in January of this year, are marked as “confidential payment.”

Each authorization carries a seven-digit file number. However, some of the petty cash authorizations add words to the end of the file number, such as “rent,” “communication,” “special investigation support” or “observation.”

Meanwhile, the amounts authorized from the “petty cash Montreal police department” tally about $480,000. Some of the justifications mention “special investigation,” and a few mention “payment to sources.” The file numbers for these records are inconsistent, with some containing fewer digits than others or letters plus digits.

A search of municipal records found 119 authorizations by members of the police force relating to the second petty cash. The first authorization that turns up was in September 2014. Another three followed a month later. The remainder date from 2015 and 2016, the bulk of them in May, September and December 2015 and March, May and June 2016. The busiest month was December 2015, when police personnel authorized 14 payments using this second petty cash label.