Private security hired by Ville-Marie
Ville-Marie is turning to private security agents to patrol Chinatown, the Village and Old Montreal.
This does not bode well. Besides the fact that someone is skimming off profits, as with the private agencies providing healthcare workers, do these agents have to follow the same rules cops do, when interacting with the public? What kinds of devices are they allowed to carry? And who are they answerable to?
And what does the powerful Police Brotherhood make of this situation? They’re not even mentioned, but you’d expect them to have an opinion.
Chris 23:09 on 2024-10-31 Permalink
Food for thought: one of the arguments against ‘defund the police’ was always that if it happened, the rich would always just hire their own security, and the poor would be left with an eviscerated public police service. (This situation is different of course, but nevertheless reminded me of the argument.)
Kate 10:00 on 2024-11-01 Permalink
Not relevant to this situation at all.
But shouldn’t the mayor and some of her henchmen be able to sit down with the SPVM and draw up some plans for patrolling those areas without recourse to shelling out even more money to a private firm?
What’s the problem? Do the cops not want to do it? Do they not have the resources to do it properly? What do the private agencies offer that the police don’t, or won’t? Lots of questions.
In any case, it’s clear that the SPVM doesn’t fully answer to city hall. That’s a real problem.
bob 12:21 on 2024-11-01 Permalink
Maybe the police budget is still too small despite all of Plante’s increases.
Maybe the private security agents will be off-duty or former cops, and maybe they will be paid very well.