Public consultation to select Montreal’s new police chief

The city of Montreal has kicked off its public consultation process, aiming to find its new chief of police.

When the announcement was first made back in April, the goal they explained is to have a police department headed by a person who will be in tune with the people of Montreal, their aspirations, and who will correspond to their vision of public safety.

In March 2022, the city initiated its recruitment process aimed at appointing a new SPVM director.

The process was paused so that a public consultation could be carried out.

This consultation is aimed at determining the qualities and characteristics of the person who will take the helm of the SPVM.

“After the Montreal forum for the fight against armed violence, we decided to enrich our selection process for the leadership of the SPVM, by adding an essential step,” explained Dominique Ollivier, president of the city’s Executive Committee.

“This step consists of consulting the stakeholders and the various representatives of the population on the ideal profile that are looking for. We drew inspiration for this from what was done in Toronto.”

Opinion survey and focus groups

The first consultation will be held on July 28 and a number of related activities will continue until mid-September. Among these, an opinion survey of 750 citizens is planned, in addition to six focus groups. This process aims to establish a basis for reflection on the qualities, characteristics and leadership traits that the chief of police should possess.

The discussion groups will bring together residents of Montreal, young people, personnel from the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), community organizations and merchants, as well as racialized groups and representatives of Indigenous groups.

Participants will be selected at random and will be consulted through online questionnaires and telephone interviews. These different initiatives will ensure a greater representativeness of opinions from the population as a whole.

REALTED:

Better consensus building and community representation

The consultation comes in response to questions and concerns raised during the Forum montréalais pour la lutte contre la violence armée (Montreal forum against armed violence) held back in February, where several participants emphasized the importance of consensus-building in the development of Montréal’s policing model.

When the consultation is completed, a report will be tabled and made public during a presentation to the Commission de la sécurité publique (CSP) this fall in order to complete the hiring process by the end of the year.

“Public safety is everyone’s business,” said the head of public security of the executive committee, Alain Vaillancourt. “While we are in the process of building a Montreal model of urban safety, we are taking the opportunity to involve the population in an important choice that concerns them […] and will allow us to strengthen the proximity and the bond of trust between the SPVM and the population it serves.”