private security firm to patrol chinatown in pilot project to address crime
"the reality is that there is crime happening in our neighbourhood and it cannot remain unchecked."
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the city of montreal has hired private security guards to patrol chinatown and other areas of downtown to support police in a pilot project set to run for two months. the $120,000 project, started in mid-october. the guards, who work for the company sirco, are also patrolling the village and old montreal. the guards are in vehicles and on foot; some are uniformed and others are in plainclothes. they are there “purely in an observe and report capacity: no intervention,” said phil chu, president of the association of residents of chinatown.
their mandate is to observe drug use in parks and other public places, for instance, and the presence of encampments of unhoused individuals — and then to report on their findings to social intervention teams working in the borough and to police so they, in turn, can take action.
chinatown residents, business owners and community leaders have been calling on the city to intervene and address what they describe as a spike in “crime and disorder.” they have spoken out about increases in drug-related violence, volatile confrontations and feeling besieged in their own homes.
“we have been sounding the alarm for quite a bit of time now,” chu said. the volunteer association he heads, which is working on safety and quality-of-life issues in the downtown community, met in early october with city councillor robert beaudry, the executive member in charge of homelessness.
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on one level, chu told the gazette, he is pleased the city is investing money in security. “the reality is that there is crime happening in our neighbourhood and it cannot remain unchecked.”
he recently observed a fight between two people in broad daylight, for instance, and “the unfortunate thing is that has become common for me to observe violent acts.”
although he has personally not seen the guards, it doesn’t mean they’re not there, chu said. still, he wondered whether the hiring of private guards is not “a bit redundant.”
“i don’t want to seem ungrateful,” he said. but he noted the community is already observing and reporting problems and incidents to police, and to local social workers, and others know to contact info-crime montréal or call 911.
the move also seems “like a short-term fix … a band-aid fix,” he said. “we would like to see something more long-term.
“but i guess we’ll take whatever we can get, right?”
chu, who has lived in chinatown for 11 years, has also lived near cabot square and milton parc, both neighbourhoods in which homelessness is present, but “it’s a question of frequency,” he said. violent acts, drug overdoses and lewd and drunken behaviour have increased enormously, he said.
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a shelter for the unhoused that opened in complexe guy-favreau during the covid-19 pandemic closed last fall, but groups of unhoused people have remained in the neighbourhood, he said.
fo niemi, executive director of the center for research-action on race relations, wrote in an opinion piece for the gazette last fall “montreal must review its approach to the unhoused and downtown’s security and quality of life, as incidents of violence multiply each month.”
chu said he noticed an improvement over the summer. “police patrols have been more frequent, but let’s not kid ourselves: the core issues are still there.”
one afternoon this past july, an intruder scaled a fence and, naked and barefoot, broke into a chinatown residence.
“after stories like that, something has got to give,” chu said.
the quebec government quietly relaxed its approach to people caught with small quantities of illegal drugs in 2023, publishing a guideline recommending cases of simple drug possession should be prosecuted only in if there is a risk to public safety.
“so the police are there, but their hands are tied,” chu said.
“what i always say is this: if you have experienced trauma in your life, it doesn’t give you carte blanche to inflict trauma on someone else,” he said. “to expect a father like myself to tolerate this in my neighbourhood is completely unacceptable.”
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chu said he plans to move elsewhere with his young family “because it feels unsafe.”
“i do not envy the local elected officials, because they have a hard job ahead of them.”
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