Côte-des-Neiges—NDG calls on Montreal to outfit police with body cams

Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough Mayor Sue Montgomery says it's time for Montreal police officers to start wearing body cameras while on the job.

A day after thousands marched through downtown in a demonstration against police brutality and racial profiling, Montgomery said body cams would be a "concrete step to hold the SPVM accountable and act on racial and social profiling."

Montgomery and Coun. Lionel Perez proposed a motion during Monday's borough council meeting that calls on Montreal to make a "firm commitment to quickly and permanently" outfit officers with wearable video cameras.

Coun. Marvin Rotrand seconded the motion. Despite the fact that Mayor Valérie Plante's administration rejected body cameras in February 2019, the borough's three Projet Montréal councillors also voted in favour of the motion.

Montgomery says cameras would improve public trust

The protest in Montreal on Sunday was one of the dozens in North American cities since a police officer was filmed kneeling on 46-year-old George Floyd's neck until he died in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 25.

Montgomery drew comparisons between Floyd's death and those closer to home.

"Right here in CDN-NDG we have a sad and tragic history of police violence against black men," Montgomery said at the start of the meeting, citing the deaths of men like 19-year-old Anthony Griffin in 1987 and 23-year-old Nicholas Gibbs in 2018.

"I know that many do not trust the police," Montgomery said. "I share your anger."

Montgomery said outfitting Montreal police with cameras would "improve public trust in their police services."

Last year, Plante said body cams would be too costly for the city after the SPVM's year-long study concluded the devices would have little impact on interventions and present logistical challenges.

Perez said on Monday that an increasing number of police departments across North America and around the world are using them because "they work."

NDG is also losing its Station 11 as it moves in with Station 9 in Côte Saint-Luc. Montgomery criticized the Plante administration for ignoring citizen outcry and allowing the merger without public consultation.

"The solution is not to have police officers even more removed from our community. We need our officers in our neighbourhood, building relations," she said.

Projet Montréal councillors support motion

Coun. Peter McQueen said Gibbs was shot despite having a local station on Somerled Avenue and Griffin was shot right outside an NDG police station. He said he fails to see the connection between moving a police station and those deaths.

However, he said, "it's time" to outfit police with body cams and Projet Montréal is in favour of the devices.

Coun. Magda Popeanu said Projet Montréal is implementing a series of measures that address racial and social profiling.

In addition, the SPVM will adopt Quebec's first street-check policy in the coming months, she said, calling Montreal a resilient city "based on the fundamental values of equality, justice and peace."

Coun. Christian Arseneault apologized for not speaking out in support of the entire black community and the Gibbs family after the young man was killed by police. Gibbs was shot in Arseneault's Loyola district.

Though he supported Plante's rejection of body cams last year, he said he is supporting Montgomery's motion as "one tiny step on the path to becoming a better ally to our neighbours and citizens who fear the police and who do so for a damn good reason."