Montreal police will be required to tell people they're free to go during street checks
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Montreal police officers conducting street checks will be required to tell people why they're being stopped and that they're free to leave, but an author of a police-commissioned report into the practice said he still believes it should be subject to a moratorium.
Police Chief Fady Dagher said the policy is intended to reassure citizens that police are acting fairly and following the rules.
The policy comes after a series of consultations, Dagher said, which took place after an independent report commissioned by the police service found that members of Indigenous, Black and Arab communities were disproportionately stopped by police and recommended a moratorium on the practice.
Dagher, who has ruled out a moratorium, told reporters Monday that he believes most Montrealers don't want police to stand by if they see someone doing something suspicious, but don't have sufficient grounds to detain them.
'The vast majority of Montreal's community isn't against the police and they're not against police checks, very few are calling for a moratorium, they want the police to do their jobs,' he said. 'On the other hand, and this is very important, they want the police to do their work well, for the police to fallow the law and for the police to respect the rights of citizens.'
Also known as 'police checks,' or 'street stops,' they occur when an officer wants to ask someone questions, including to identify themselves, but doesn't have reasonable grounds to detain the individual or demand they identify themselves.
The stops are different from a traffic stop, where drivers are legally required to identify themselves to police.
Victor Armony, a professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal and one of the co-authors of the 2023 report, said that while the new policy is an improvement, he doesn't believe it will reduce racial profiling and still supports the report's recommendation that police stop the practice.
'The police will tell you we need street stops because they help us fight crime, but actually there's no real proof that collecting information this way allows police to fight crime or reduce criminality,' he said in an interview.
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