SPVM unveils new unit specialized for complex complaints of intimate partner violence

“Because we’re present with the victim, we’re reinstalling trust,” said Montreal police officer, Salvatore Serrao, of the force's specialized unit dedicated to intimate partner violence, working with community groups. Alyssia Rubertucci reports.

Montreal police unveiled their new unit specialized in intimate partner violence.

It’s a multidisciplinary team dealing with more complex complaints, like when it comes to cases that could lead to homicides.

In 2021, the SPVM saw more than 23 per cent of their crimes against people related to intimate partner violence, as well as five of the 37 homicide victims.

BACKGROUND: Intimate partner violence rose during pandemic with no sign of slowing: study

“Because we’re present with the victim, well, then we’re reinstalling trust. Reinstalling trust in the judicial process, reinstalling trust in the police,” said Salvatore Serrao with the Montreal police’s training division.

“A specialized approach is needed because conjugal violence, its effects are widespread, contrary to another crime that happened in the street. It happened in the streets. If someone gets robbed or there’s a theft, it happens there and it stops. But conjugal, intimate partner violence can happen in the home and its effects can be far reaching to the children, to the siblings, to the members of the family.”

Working with local organizations, the SSVC unite (Section spécialisée en violence conjugale) was put into place last October. By the end of March, it took on 130 serious cases of intimate partner violence.

When officers of this unit are called to a scene, they often put the victims in touch with community resources.

“There’s a great deal of success because we’re able to put a safety net around the victim, and that’s really the goal,” said Serrao.


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Jenny Charest, of the Centre d’aide aux victimes d’actes criminels (CAVAC), says it’s a system that puts victims in touch with proper resources.

“It creates closer links between the different organizations and between the police and the aid services,” she said. “I think that’s one of the elements. Yes, there were already links that have existed for a long time. But the ways to structure them in domestic violence, to ensure that we work together, that makes the difference.”

Charest says this was especially important as violence against women and femicides were on the rise in Quebec in 2021.

“Coercive control has increased a lot, I would say during the pandemic, because the core of someone who is controlling or violent over their family was exacerbated by people being stuck in their homes and not being able to get out,” she said.

Victims often stay with their abusers, so police say the program is designed for monthly follow-ups.

“Here it is us who approach them, and we can detect situations that in the end, sometimes, conditions have been broken three times and now we are going to intervene,” said Anouk St-Onge with the SSVC. “So doing the follow-up can make all the difference.”

The specialized unit accompanies the victim through the judicial process and assists suspects to seek help in hopes to prevent a future crime.

“If there’s one suspect out there who gets the help they need and they don’t assault their wife or their children ever again, mission accomplished,” said Serrao.

Montreal police encourage anyone suffering from intimate partner violence or who knows of a victim to report it at a local police station of call 911.

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