Police cuts remain a mystery

With the City of Montreal asking for budget cuts from all departments due to the economic recession, the police department is expected to make cuts of $14 million. However, media reports that this will result in the dismantling of 60 positions after that amount of officers retire in September are a little premature, according to Pierre Rochet, assistant-director to the west region community services.

"That's just one of the propositions we are going to make to the City of Montreal and other elected officials," he told The Chronicle.

Other rumours suggest the police force would be cutting temporary officer positions, since union contracts forbid the lay-off of permanent employees.

However, neither the Montreal police or the union which represents its employees would confirm or deny those allegations.

No media relations officers from the West Island stations 1,3, 4 or 5 returned calls for comment on whether any measures would affect their territories.

However, during a public event two weeks ago, Station 5 officer Liliana Belluci said nobody at her station had heard anything about layoffs. "No, I've heard nothing," she said. "And if that was the case, we would be the first ones to find out."

Local elected officials were mum on the subject as well. "We met with Mr. St. Cyr, our commander, on Monday," said Ste. Anne de Bellevue Mayor Bill Tierney.

He added Station 1's commander did not announce anything about West Island cuts.

"If there are cuts, we haven't been informed of any," he said. "We can't possibly afford to lose any," he added.

"Our station is always getting purged because of our low levels of criminality," added Tierney. He did not expect any more cuts to Station 1 anytime soon, he said.

Pointe Claire Mayor Bill McMurchie has not been informed of any changes either.

"I have no indication at all that the composition of Station 5 will be altered at all, but it's a concern," said McMurchie. He added his own administration would only consider cutting jobs as a last resort. "The last thing we'd do is cut staff without looking at other options," he said.

Earlier this week, French-language news website ruefrontenac.com reported

Montreal police held an internal conference during which it confirmed 60 positions would not be filled in September after the officers currently holding them would retire, but also that there would no lay-offs or contract job cuts.

"That journalist used anonymous sources," said Rochet. "It's too early to talk about any of this yet."

Nevertheless, the report contained quotations from senior police brass at the meeting, suggesting the reporter's sources were in the room when it occurred.

Two years ago, several West Island municipalities significantly beefed up their public security budget, indicating this is necessary to help them with the lack of police manpower in the area.

In February, over 10 police patrol cars showed up in Pointe Claire after three young adults broke into a private home. Several of them were from surrounding police stations that do not cover the city.

"The resources are a little stretched in the West Island, so we called whoever was available," had said spokesperson Laurent Gingras back then.