Police are doing their job, Lecompte says

BY MARC LALONDE

marc.lalonde@transcontinental.ca

The former Montreal police officer who quit the force to help people fight traffic tickets should go back to what he knows and leave the crime fighting to those who still wear a badge, a local police commander said last week.

“The problem, in society is that people think they are experts on everything, even when they are not,” said Montreal police Station 1 Cmdr. Michel Lecompte, in reaction to comments from an ex-cop that Montreal’s traffic-squad cops would be better off fighting street gangs and improving quality of life for residents.

SOS Ticket CEO Alfredo Munoz said last week that the 133 officers hired last year to staff the Montreal police department’s traffic squad would be better off assigned to fighting street gangs than issuing tickets to motorists.

“If all those cops were on street gangs, there would be no more street gangs,” said Munoz, a cop for 12 year until last week - when he was forced to choose between running his company, which advises motorists on how to fight tickets and his job as a cop.

The former sergeant said Montreal police are driven by image and are only concerned with how they — and the job they’re charged with doing — are portrayed in the media.

“For them, image is what’s most important. A few years ago, the police said there were no problems with street gangs in the city, but now, we know different,” he said, adding that traffic accidents occur at a similar rate regardless of how many cops are on the road handing out tickets.

Lecompte said for many West Islanders, the scourge of traffic is worse than the idea of street gangs, who have yet to get a major foothold in the West Island, with some pockets of activity here and there.

“My station covers five cities (Beaconsfield, Baie d’Urfé, Kirkland, Ste. Anne de Bellevue and Senneville) and when I go to those cities’ council meetings, what do you think they complain about? Street gangs, or people running stop signs and speeding on their street? If (Montreal police) could have more people to assign to traffic, they would,” he said.

Lecompte, though, takes no issue at Munoz’ choice of businesses, as some cops have, but agreed the perception of a conflict of interest forced his Montreal police-department bosses’ hands.

“Him, he has made a business out of it. That’s a good business. I should get into it when I retire, and he chose the business, which means the business must be more lucrative. I think, though, that the department did what it had to do.”