SPVM: 84% of cops live outside the city
Eighty-four percent of the SPVM live outside the city they patrol. Does this matter? Opinions differ. It’s mentioned that ten years ago it was revealed that only 20% of our cops and firefighters actually lived in the city.
dwgs 08:07 on 2021-06-21 Permalink
The situation is similar with the city works crews and yes, it matters. You want those people to feel as though they are a part of the community, it makes a difference.
jeather 08:35 on 2021-06-21 Permalink
It does matter, but I once looked it up and we can’t actually have residency requirements. This is not uncommon for police officers in all sorts of cities that don’t have residency requirements. A somewhat less obvious problem with this is that shifts are chosen to minimize commute time and not to fit community needs best. Plus of course the problem noted here before that they get free parking (illegally untaxed) for their personal vehicles.
Ephraim 09:45 on 2021-06-21 Permalink
@jeather – I’ve been trying to get a real answer to the question of if it’s in fact illegally untaxed. If it is, and Revenu Quebec doesn’t go after it, they are also guilty of tax evasion. Wouldn’t that be delightful, finding that RQ is knowingly allowing the Montreal police to evade taxes? Wouldn’t every newspaper in town delight in that? And that RQ is actually implicated in it?
Kate 09:47 on 2021-06-21 Permalink
I wouldn’t hold my breath. They’ve probably already written themselves a loophole.
Blork 09:53 on 2021-06-21 Permalink
I’m not convinced it matters. We don’t live in a Norman Rockwell painting, and ideas about “belonging to the community” are highly romantic but not very useful when it comes to police training. After all, if a cop lives in Rosemont but serves in Station 20 downtown or in Saint-Henri, do they really feel like they’re part of that community more than someone who lives in Laval or Brossard? I highly doubt it.
Somewhat related: there’s a pilot program starting up in Longueuil in which they are training a group of officers in “community policing,” which goes against the trend of “bigger guns, bigger vehicles” (etc.) that we’ve been seeing. The idea is to train those officers in gentler forms of intervention, and to spend time in the community AS PART OF the community and to foster a connection with it in both directions (cops feeling closer to the community; community feeling closer to the cops). It sounds like a really excellent plan, but it has (and should have) nothing to do with the officer’s postal code.
Here’s a video story about it from Global: https://globalnews.ca/video/7949457/longueuil-police-force-takes-on-new-approach-to-policing
jeather 10:07 on 2021-06-21 Permalink
My understanding is that if you’re working in, say, Ville Marie, you probably should have it on your R1 in the benefits field, but if you’re working in an area where street parking is fairly easy to get, it’s probably not worth anything.) I would bet that this is true of many public servants and a lot of companies as well, though, it’s not unique to the police.
I think there’s something to living in the city vs a far off suburb. (I grant that I don’t really have an issue with someone living in Laval or Brossard, I’m thinking further away.)
Jack 10:16 on 2021-06-21 Permalink
I would hazard a guess that a majority of our police live in Mascouche, Terrebonne and Blainville. Places that do not have sidewalks. Happily the PQ has a plan to help our police “cope” with diversity.
https://www.lapresse.ca/affaires/economie/2021-06-21/penurie-de-main-d-oeuvre/le-pq-propose-d-envoyer-50-des-immigrants-en-region.php
Ephraim 15:14 on 2021-06-21 Permalink
@jeather – The city can’t remove the snow without a cost…. there is always a cost to parking. (Which is why at one job, we all had to chip in for the parking, because their doing it would have violated our unionized pay.
jeather 16:09 on 2021-06-21 Permalink
There is a cost to parking, but if street parking is free and fairly easily available, the value of your free lot is probably minimal, even if the company has to pay for snow removal.
Jonathan 17:11 on 2021-06-21 Permalink
I saw a tweet from Ted Rutland that had an article from 1990 that announced a new community program for cops in Longueuil, almost exactly the same wording.
20 years later and nothing has changed. Hell, 200 years later and nothing has changed
Chris 21:10 on 2021-06-21 Permalink
Cops have enemies. I can also understand (some of) them not wanting the people in the neighbourhood they patrol to see them in their local park, local stores, etc. in their off-work time.
MarcG 10:12 on 2021-06-22 Permalink
Imagine being such an asshole that you’re afraid to live near the people you work with.
walkerp 12:36 on 2021-06-22 Permalink
“Cops have enemies” is a pretty bald indictment that they are not peace officers but organized crime with state power.