Search for new Montreal police chief paused so public can be consulted

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Montreal will hold public consultations on the choice of its next police chief, Mayor Valérie Plante and executive-committee chair Dominique Ollivier announced Tuesday.

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The search for a top cop to replace Sylvain Caron, who retires this week, has been underway since March 25.

However, the city is pausing the hiring process for several months to allow the public to weigh in on the qualifications it should seek in the next chief.

In the meantime, interim chief Sophie Roy will take charge of the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), as announced last week.

The idea of ​​consulting the public before selecting a new permanent chief emerged from a forum on combatting armed violence held March 31, Ollivier said at a press conference at city hall.

“The Montreal Forum for the Fight Against Armed Violence: Uniting for Youth reminded us that consultation is an essential ingredient in public-security strategies,” she said.

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“As an administration, we have the responsibility to involve the population in the important choices that concern them, and the selection of the next person to head the police is a rare opportunity to seize,” Ollivier added.

The start date for the next chief is being pushed back from the fall to the end of the year, she said. The city will post the job in the fall, once the consultations have been carried out, she said.

The Plante administration is seeking to develop a “Montreal model” for public security that will build greater trust between police and civil society and help combat rising gun violence.

At the forum, participants, including community organizations, policing experts and young people, stressed the need for public input, said Ollivier, the former president of the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OWHC).

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The details of the consultations have not yet been worked out, but they could include an online survey and focus groups, she said.

Ollivier said the administration ran the idea of ​​holding consultations on the criteria for the next police chief past the police department, but not past the Montreal Police Brotherhood, which has complained about sagging morale and a wave of departures from the force.

In the coming weeks, the city will appoint a deputy general manager of Urban Security and Compliance, she noted. Plante announced the creation of the position in February, as part of its efforts to combat armed violence. The police and fire departments, city clerk and legal affairs department will report to the new manager.

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Opposition public security critic Abdelhaq Sari said that consulting Montrealers on the criteria for choosing the next police chief is not enough. Citizens should also have an opportunity to grill leading contenders for the job at a public meeting of the public security committee, he said.

That was among the recommendations of a June 2020 report by the OWHC, then led by Ollivier, on systemic racism and discrimination within the city and police force.

But Ollivier said requiring candidates for the job of police chief to appear at a public consultation would violate confidentiality requirements of the hiring process.