Ensemble Montréal Demands Fulfillment of Police Body Camera Promise
Ensemble Montréal is calling on the Projet Montréal administration to fulfill its commitment to fund body camera deployment for Montreal Police Service (SPVM) officers, as promised during the last election campaign. The party, which forms the Official Opposition at City Hall, will submit a budget amendment for 2025 to make this promise a reality.
“There is a unanimous desire to have portable cameras, from both the public and the SPVM chief and the Montreal Police Brotherhood. It’s high time the administration stops looking for excuses and finally adopts this technology that can address many issues,” insists Abdelhaq Sari, the Official Opposition spokesperson for public safety.
For the Opposition, this tool, already proven elsewhere, is essential in reassuring the population, enhancing trust, ensuring transparency in police interventions, and combating racial and social profiling.
Projet Montréal Continues to Stall
In 2019, the Projet Montréal administration categorically rejected the deployment of body cameras for police officers before changing course in the last elections by promising their implementation at the beginning of 2022. This proved to be nothing more than a mirage, with the project ultimately being postponed to 2023.
Since then, it appears the administration has officially broken its promise. Although Mayor Plante defends waiting for the Quebec government to impose this measure on all provincial police forces, her administration’s actions reveal a lack of political will. A proposed amendment for body camera deployment formulated by Projet Montréal members at the party’s last congress was rejected, and funds initially allocated to the project in previous budgets have disappeared from the 2025 budget.
For the Official Opposition, the upcoming budget review and the proposed amendment will serve as a critical test of Projet Montréal’s commitment to police reform. This moment will reveal whether the party’s elected officials genuinely prioritize improving citizen-police relations or are content with empty rhetoric and broken promises.
