Montreal's new police chief hopes to offer outsider's perspective

CTV Montreal: Montreal's new police chief Montreal's new police chief, Sylvain Caron, comes with an outsiders' perspective on the once troubled force.

The Montreal police force has a new chief, who says he comes with an outsider’s perspective on the once-troubled force.

Sylvain Caron was sworn in Wednesday, taking over the mantle from interim leader Martin Prud’homme, who was tasked with cleaning up the SPVM following years of internal dysfunction.

Caron spent the first half of his career running the Sorel police department, before rising to the top echelons of the Surete du Quebec.

Caron said he’s looking forward to getting to work.

“There are still things to fix, but we're putting oil in the gears, rather than sand,” he said.

Decades of internal divisions within management led to the replacement of controversial director Philippe Pichet by Prud’homme last year to restore confidence in the organization.

Since then, the force has also had to deal with accusations of systemic racial profiling. The SPVM introduced its strategy, based on prevention, earlier this week.

“It's a fine line between the perception of profiling, and ensuring safety for Montrealers,” said Caron. “Are we always perfect? Probably not. That's why we have a plan to prevent it.”

Minorities make up about 11 per cent of the SPVM's staff, even if they represent more than a third of Montreal's population. Caron said the Montreal police are working on measures to improve that number.

“Society is diversifying much faster than the SPVM or other institutions' capacity to adapt,” he said. “For years now, we've been present at job fairs, and we're reaching out to communities to draw their attention and encourage them to join us.”

Caron said the SPVM, like most police forces, will also continue to work with sex crime victims to reassure them it's safe and necessary for victims to call the police.

“Our staff is highly qualified. These people are committed, they take it to heart,” he said. “They do everything in their power to get the facts and present their case to a prosecutor.”

The interview with Caron was conducted in French. The chief apologized that his English isn't strong enough for a televised interview, and promised to take a crash course.

He wanted to reassure Montrealers, though, that his lack of bilingualism won't prevent him from doing his job.

“I understand the issues, and I understand the communities I serve,” he said.