Police Services Organizational Reform (Details)

Name of province/ territory:

Quebec

City/ Region:

Quebec

Description of Initiative:

Since 2000-2001, a number of significant changes have been made to the laws and regulations concerning Quebec police services that have enabled a radical reform of the police services organization.

Initiative Key Objectives:

Depending on the period and the legislative changes made, objectives have been to professionalize policing, provide better service to the population by standardizing the services provided by all police forces, better distinguish between the roles and responsibilities of municipal police forces and the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), allow police forces to achieve efficiencies, and increase police response and investigative capacities.

Finally, some changes have allowed for more equitable sharing of police service costs paid by Quebec municipalities and the Government of Quebec.

Section Responsible for Implementation:

Even though MSP initiated the police services reform, municipal police forces and the municipalities they serve were often responsible for implementing a number of measures, such as training personnel, purchasing equipment, etc., in order to meet their new legal obligations.

Key Contact:

Dana Cristina Cadeschi
dana.cristina.cadeschi@msp.gouv.qc.ca

Groups/ Agencies/ Key Partners Involved:

• other police services
• police association or union

Level of Involvement (consultative - information sharing) and/or cooperative - direct involvement):

The municipalities or the organizations representing the municipalities also participated in the reform process. All partners were involved in the reform process, especially in a consultative capacity by actively participating in the thinking on what can be called, more globally, the future of policing in Quebec.

Amount of Time Initiative has been in Place:

Reform of police services started in 2000. The year 2001 was the most significant year for police service reforms. A few changes were made in 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2012, all in line with the reform started in 2000-2001.

Reason for Undertaking the Initiative:

Most of the changes were undertaken to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of police forces. A number of the changes in 2012 were undertaken as a result of economic concerns in order to achieve savings.

For one, changes were made to the Police Act to allow for the sharing of certain police services.

For another, changes were made to the regulation respecting the amounts payable by municipalities for the services provided by the SQ, to introduce some measures that would cut the Government of Quebec’s contribution to costs for SQ services. Specifically, municipalities with populations of 50,000 or more residents that are served by the SQ will see the costs for those services increase progressively (by 4% in 2012 up to 15% in 2015 and subsequent years). Municipalities with fewer than 50,000 residents wanting to be served by the SQ after the modified regulation comes into effect will also have to pay a temporary decreasing surcharge. In doing so, the Government of Quebec can more gradually assume the costs for new requirements for SQ services.

Resources Required to Implement this Initiative:

For the MSP, the costs were minimal, especially in terms of human resources. For police organizations, in 2010 the MSP began a number of studies on the results of the 2001 police services reform. One of the studies aimed to assess the financial impacts of the 2001 reform of police forces. It concluded that the police services reform did not have a major impact on police cost behaviour. Even though police service costs have increased since 2001, the increase is very comparable to the increases in other provinces in Canada that did not experience this kind of reform. Plus, it was observed that, despite a higher number of police officers per 1,000 residents, the average cost per resident for police services in Quebec remained among the lowest in Canada.

One of the hypotheses for explaining this phenomenon could be the nature of the 2001 reform—specifically, the introduction of six levels of service to be provided by police services. The levels of service are determined based on the population of the municipalities served by a police force and the geographic location of these municipalities. The greater the assigned service level, the more services the police force must provide. This way police forces provide services that best meet the needs of the population and do not have to procure, sometimes uselessly, expensive equipment to be able to provide some very specialized services that are used very infrequently.

Method of Implementation:

The police service organizational reform was phased in. Plus, in order to assist municipal police forces in implementing the reform, the Government of Quebec agreed that the SQ freely provide all services that a municipal police force is unable to provide.

Key Outcomes of the Initiative:

In general, the 2001 police service organizational reform met its objectives: a number of small police forces have been eliminated (out of 125 municipal police forces in 2001, only 30 municipal and SQ police forces remain as of November 15, 2012), meaning that police resources are now better shared through larger police forces that have greater response and investigative capacities.

Introduction of levels of service:

The level of service is determined by the population size of the municipality served by a police force and the geographic location of the municipality. A municipal police force must therefore provide, in the area under its jurisdiction, services at one of the following levels:

• Level 1 services, if the population to be served is less than 100,000 residents;
• Level 2 services, if the population to be served is between 100,000 and 249,999 residents;
• Level 3 services, if the population to be served is between 250,000 and 499,999 residents;
• Level 4 services, if the population to be served is between 500,000 and 999,999 residents; and
• Level 5 services, if the population to be served is 1,000,000 or more residents.

• policing
• investigations
• emergency measures
• support services

Availability of a Communication Strategy:

No

Key Messages used to Publicize the Initiative:

N/A

Forms of Evaluation by which the Initiative will be Assessed:

• internal
• qualitative

Evaluation Completed or Community Feedback Received:

No

Summary of the Outcomes:

The only comments received from the public have been through satisfaction surveys. However, these did not specifically deal with police services organizational reform.

Summary of the Performance Measure Data Collected:

N/A

Economics of Policing Pillars:

• Efficiencies within Police Services
• New Models of Community Safety

Further Details:

Some of the changes made have allowed police forces to share equipment, premises or space, provide police call dispatch services and share some police services (including sharing human resources).

The introduction of the regulation respecting the police services that municipal police forces and the SQ must provide according to their level of jurisdiction enabled the roles and responsibilities of different police forces to be better defined while providing consistent service to the public. Further, the division of police services into six levels of service, based on the population size and geographic location (belonging to a metropolitan community or census metropolitan area) of the municipality served by a municipal police force is unique in Canada. The number of services that each police force must provide increases as the level of service increases. Thus, the smallest municipalities must provide fewer services, which better matches their needs while enabling efficiencies (since they do not need to provide services that they only rarely use, but for which obtaining the expertise and equipment can often be quite costly).

Additional Comments or Suggestions:

N/A

Record Entry Date:

2013-08-01