Senior leaders at Montreal’s police department, the SPVM, could be asked a lot of hard questions when they appear before Montreal’s Public Security Commission on June 8.
Violent crime increased dramatically in almost all major categories last year, according to the 2021 SPVM report.
Homicides are up 39.5 per cent in the last five years.
Attempted murder increased by 27.1 per cent.
And sexual assault is up 32.2 per cent.
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But Montreal’s point man on public security insists the city remains safe and the public has nothing to fear.
“If you look at all the other crime statistics and you compare yourself, Montreal does remain safe,” Alain Vaillancourt, the city’s executive committee member on public security, said.
Vaillancourt said there has been recent progress in recent weeks, including a major drug bust on May 25 where millions of dollars worth of amphetamines were taken off the streets.\
“They took off the street over 6.5 million pills of amphetamines, which is huge. It was a huge hit to organized crime,” he said.
Vaillancourt adds that more than 200 officers will be hired next year, even though the report says 377 officers are needed.
One opposition councillor insists the city should have already hired more people.
“I asked for that in 2021. What is the action that they do? He has the plans but what is the action?” Abdelhaq Sari, Montreal city councillor, said.
The report points out that hate crimes have dropped slightly between 2020 and 2021.
Some community activists insist the report is lacking in details relating to racial profiling.
“Questions should be asked to why this issue is not mentioned and what happens to the commitment to, among other things, collect data on police stops based on race,” Fo Niemi, the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations executive director, told Global News.
The Public Security Commission hearings begin June 8 at 1 p.m.
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