(Quebec) The City of Quebec, faced with a significant increase in crimes against the person, intends to hire 101 new police officers within two years to face “new realities”.
Posted at 11:47 a.m.
These new hires at the Quebec City Police Service (SPVQ) are not trivial. They represent an increase in staff numbers of around 10%, whereas only a handful of positions had been created in recent decades.
“This addition of staff represents the largest increase in public security staff in 25 years, since the municipal mergers,” indicated Tuesday the mayor of Quebec, Bruno Marchand.
The Marchand administration intends to hire 51 new police officers in 2025 and 50 in 2026, to bring their total number to approximately 1,030. Over the same period, 72 new positions will also be created at the Quebec Fire Protection Service (SPCIQ).
Tuesday’s announcement means a $15 million investment. These recurring expenses represent 1% of the City’s tax revenue.
The police chief explained that he had undertaken a “rigorous” analysis this year on the lack of manpower among the capital’s police officers. Remember that Quebec is hit by a significant increase in crimes against the person, is the scene of a war between criminal groups and is grappling with an increase in homelessness.
“This year, we presented a complete, very detailed file, done rigorously and the municipal administration followed us in that,” said Denis Turcotte.
The head of the SPVQ affirmed that the number of police officers had not changed in recent decades in Quebec. He had managed to convince the Marchand administration to create around ten of them over the past two years. But Tuesday’s announcement is “colossal,” according to Mr. Turcotte.
The announcement comes in a difficult context for the capital. Crimes against the person are increasing faster than the population in Quebec. In its 2023 report, the SPVQ noted an increase of 6.6% in one year in violent crimes, the third successive annual increase in its territory. For comparison, the population of Quebec increased by barely 3% between 2022 and 2023 according to data from the Institute of Statistics of Quebec (ISQ).
Despite this, Mayor Marchand indicated that in a recent survey carried out by the City of Quebec, 92% of citizens said they felt safe. “So it’s not true that there is a feeling of insecurity among everyone. »
The hiring will “help deal with new realities, particularly homelessness,” said Mr. Marchand. “We are not in the mode of “we are going to give more tickets to finance what we do”, specifies the mayor. We are in the process of working on crime, organized gangs, armed violence, all issues related to homelessness… That’s what we’re aiming for. »
New police officers will be on duty from January. The SPVQ notably intends to set up a new module on urban violence.
