Two years after damning report, Montreal police service looks to regain public trust

The Montreal police service (SPVM) says it is making in progress as it overhauls its internal affairsdivision in the wake of a December 2017 report that revealed alarming allegations of wrongdoing that eventually brought down the chief.

The department's top brass updated Montreal's public security committeeTuesday, outlining what has been achieved over the past year.

The department says it is improving governance, structure, trainingand officerdiscipline, and it's making surecitizen complaints are responded to efficiently and effectively.

Line Carbonneau, head of internal affairs, said the force is working to ensure the department is adhering to provincial regulations and norms.

The SPVM must assure the population that officers behave professionally and any disciplinary case will be handled with integrity, Chief Sylvain Caron told the city's public security commission.

In a democratic society, it's critical that citizens and police co-exist with mutual respect, he said.

Committee chair Alex Norris told reporters that the state of internal affairs is much better today than what was outlined in the2017 report which alleged intimidation, corruption and uninvestigated complaints against officers.

Norris said his administration wants the management of the police force to be as "transparent" as possible.

Police investigating police

However, the committee's vice-chair, Abdelhaq Sari, said the complaintsprocess still lacks transparency, and the reforms discussed so far are mostly "cosmetic."

When it comes to criminal complaints against police, "citizens don't have any place in the process," he told CBC News.

He said that it's a problem that police in the internal affairs division investigate their fellow officers, when they can be re-assigned to another departmentlater.

He said that a provincial body that has the input of citizens would be better positioned to investigate corruption in the force saying that Quebec's provincial police force, theSret du Qubec, is in the midst of its own crisis.

After the suspension of SPVM former chief Philippe Pichet, Martin Prud'homme, the head of the SQ at the time, was made interim chief of the Montreal force. After returning to the SQ, Prud'homme himself was suspended byQuebec's publicsecurity minister, Genevive Guilbault,who saidshe was made aware of allegations of a criminal nature against him.

The BEI, the provincial watchdog that investigates when a civilian is seriously injured or killed in an interaction with police, has also been criticized by the familiesof victims for using former police officers in its investigations.

'Climate of tension'

The SPVM's overhaul of its internal affairs department has been underway for the past year, though it dates back to a 98-pageQuebec government report that concluded a "climate of tension" had developed within thedepartment.

Those findings were based on the study of more than 1,000 internal cases over a seven-year period.

The report led to the suspension of high-ranking officers and the eventual resignationofPichet.