Montreal could create new unit for non-crime-related 911 calls – Montreal | 24CA News
New plans are within the works which can be designed to take the strain off Montreal police officers.
Montreal’s senior police brass and metropolis officers need a new unit for non-crime-related emergency calls.
The metropolis’s govt committee member chargeable for public safety Alain Vallaincourt was responding to questions from the general public throughout a presentation of the town’s 2022 actions report at Montreal metropolis corridor Tuesday when Alia Hazineh, a member of the general public requested, “What is your plan to ensure that certain 911 calls are diverted to civilian squads?”
Vaillancourt replied that the town is working taking a look at launching a pilot challenge through which 911 calls that aren’t crime associated are diverted.
“Calls that are non-violent and non-crime-related, that are purely mental health, will go to another unit that is not police related,” he defined.
He mentioned loads of work remains to be wanted earlier than this system is launched, although.
“One is, we need to have someone who’s going to respond to the calls, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
It’s the police who at the moment are filling that void.
People have lengthy questioned the knowledge of getting police reply to non-criminal 911 calls or be positioned in conditions that may require a non-police method, like psychological well being crises or homelessness.
Montreal police chief Fady Dagher mentioned Tuesday that an increasing number of police providers are going through the identical problem, and pointed to the London Metropolitan Police within the United Kingdom, who earlier this yr mentioned that they’d now not reply to psychological well being emergency calls.
“Cops cannot answer those calls anymore,” Dagher quoted that power as saying. “We don’t have the right tools to do it.”
The identical query was high of thoughts for some members of the general public at Montreal metropolis corridor Tuesday.
One query despatched in by way of e mail learn, “Please reallocate a percentage of the police budget to a non-police alternative, and please replace police in schools with social workers.”
According to the police’s 2022 report, 70 per cent of the 911 calls had nothing to do with criminality.
Neither Vaillancourt nor Dagher gave many particulars concerning the new staff being fashioned however mentioned it might be made up of civilians who’ve social work experience and would get police assist when wanted.
According to Vaillancourt the present four-member blended police/civilian staff, EMIC, which focuses on serving to weak individuals within the Metro system and features a social employee, may finally take a few of these calls. They function in simply 4 boroughs now.
“The plan is to put it city-wide as rapidly as we can,” Vaillancourt famous.
Some say it’s overdue however marvel if ample sources will likely be invested to permit the staff to succeed.
“Fund it out of the police budget,” insisted Ted Rutland, a professor at Concordia University who was at Tuesday’s assembly. “Transfer money from the police to this civilian squad.”
He and different civilians at Tuesday’s occasion are keen to listen to extra from the town about this plan.
