Altogether, criminality associated to Street Gangs accounted for 1.6% of all criminal acts committed in Montreal in 2009. We note a significant 25.5% drop when compared to last year.

This is explained by, among other things, Police presence (prevention and suppression) and targeted interventions by the SPVM aimed specifically at Street Gangs.

Prevention

The Police Officers of the SPVM met with and brought awareness to more than 150,000 people (159 887) and devoted nearly 6,500 work hours (6 492) to it.

We devoted many resources to raise youth interest in sports activities to contribute to their healthy development. We continued to invest in several prevention projects, including:

• Soccer vers l'avenir (Soccer for the future)
• Basket vers l'avenir (Basketball for the future)
• Pascal Project
• Projet Gang de choix (Gang of Choice project)
• Unité sans violence (Non-Violence Squad) 

Police visibility

We carried out more than 40,000 hours of patrols (43 507) in several targeted areas. Police Officers carried out many of these in parks, subways and stores.

Suppression

We undertook 64 Street Gang investigations, several of which were long and medium term in order to catch the hard core members.

The Police operations carried out in Montreal have led to the arrest of many individuals connected to SG activities. Among the suspects arrested, several face gangsterism charges. 

During this period, we seized 52 firearms connected to Street Gang suspects, as well as a large quantity of illegal drugs.

Tools for Police Officers

Work tools developed for the exclusive use of the Police Officers, such as membership indicators, was developed in order to help them identify the distinctive markings of the various Street Gangs. These tools make it possible for Police Officers to become familiarized with the symbols used by Street Gangs and to better target their investigations.

Montreal is at the forefront of safe cities

The Mercer index ranks Montreal and 4 other Canadian cities as1st among the safest cities in North America.

Mercer carried out a classification of 215 large cities throughout the world. We want to maintain this positioning and invest even more to fight against the Street Gang phenomenon, a major concern for our Service. We believe it possible to prevent and slow down youth joining Street Gangs  by creating prevention programs.

To find out more

Actualités GDR - February 2010

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