City of Montreal Police Department

The   (abbreviated as  SPVM ) is the  municipal police department  of the city of  Montreal  and  its agglomeration . It has major posts, a headquarters and neighborhood posts to counter crime  and  get closer to the population. 

SPVM Colonial and Modern Sources

By consulting the history of the police in Montreal as told on the SPVM website itself, we see that the commonly accepted starting point for law enforcement operations on the territory of the city of Montreal is January 27 1663, date on which Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve set up, as part of the colonization and evangelization of New France, a militia of 120 men to protect the French colony of Ville-Marie3.

Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve would have founded, on January 27, 1663, the first European militia to guarantee the security of the colony of Ville-Marie.

The site specifies the more military than police mission of this first militia:

“More busy monitoring the enemy who threatens the peasants scattered on their lands outside the walls of Ville-Marie, the hundred volunteers do not have the primary responsibility of repressing crime or enforcing the royal edicts. »3

In addition to the fact that they do not allow us to have a precise representation of the maintenance of order within the colony of Ville-Marie, these remarks must also serve to recall the colonial origin as well as modern (post-nineteenth century) of the very concept of policing on Montreal territory.

Indeed, Montreal was initially a colony that attempted to impose its presence militarily on a territory previously occupied by the Aboriginal populations, and in particular the Mohawk nation. It must therefore be remembered that the history of the police in Montreal, often written by Europeans or descendants of Europeans, seeks its sources in the early hours of the colony of Ville-Marie. Neither the concept of the police, nor even that of a justice based on punishment or violent repression can describe the Mohawk legal systems, historically based on the notion of restorative justice4,5,6.

On the other hand, within the very history of European and Western culture, the concept of the police as a state body responsible for maintaining order is a modern invention that only emerged at the end of the 18th century. century in Europe and in Western culture as a whole. Montreal and the history of its police are part of this more general history.

The Watch Service (1818-1838)

In fact, as summarized by Émilie Girard, the establishment of a municipal police force strictly speaking in Montreal is an English import which dates back only to 18658. "Before this date" explains Émilie Girard, "justice is applied by justices of the peace and constables, ordinary citizens. If they are unable to cope with the situation, the garrison is called in as reinforcements."8

In addition, on April 1, 1818, the Act which provides more effectively for the Security of the Cities of Quebec and Montreal by the establishment of a Guet leads to the establishment of a system of maintaining order named the "Watch Service":

"It is made up of 1 chief, 1 deputy chief and 24 patrol men. To be hired, one must have good morals, be in good health, bilingual and recommended. 5 a.m. with only a five-foot stick as their only weapon! They are also equipped with a rattle (eventually replaced by a whistle) to alert their colleagues and deter criminals."8

This rattle is also used to "mark the time", and is at the origin of the nickname of these lookouts: "Every half hour, the lookouts make it turn, then shout, when there is nothing to report, "All is well!". This is how they earned their nickname of "bazouelles"."8

Also in charge of lighting the lanterns in the streets9,8, these lookouts worked at night, while it was the gendarmes (constables, or constables) who were supposed to provide security during the day10.

Underfunding of the Service du guet and creation of the police following the rebellion in Lower Canada (Patriots' War) (1838-1865)

Around 1837-1838, the activities of the Watch Service came to an end for two coincidental reasons. On the one hand, the Service suffers from a lack of funding; on the other, he was replaced by a police force set up by Lord Durham. With the aim of suppressing the rebellion of the Patriots, Durham set up "a body of salaried and full-time policemen placed under the direct authority of a superintendent of police in Quebec and Montreal"11, which the Canadians will call, by derisively, the "Durham Police"11.

Lord Durham creates the Montreal Police to put down the Patriot Rebellion of 1837.

Émilie Girard summarizes the nature and tasks of this police force at its origins, then its evolution into a specifically Montreal organization during the 1840s:

"Commissioned in 1838, this police force is made up, in Montreal, of 4 officers, 6 sergeants, 6 corporals, 4 horsemen and 102 constables under the direction of Pierre-E. Leclère. Its purpose is to subdue protest rallies and to quell patriotic unrest. It policed ​​both the city and the surrounding countryside. When the City was second incorporated in the early 1840s, the Durham police were turned over to the City and the Governor appointed a Commissioner of Police from Lower Canada to Montreal: Alex Comeau, who has 60 men under his direction: 3 captains, 3 lieutenants (each responsible for 1 police station), 3 prison guards, 2 mounted policemen, 3 in charge of secret services" (investigations) and 46 constables." 8

                                                                                 Surete-du-Quebec