Unless there is a surprise, special police officers in the metropolis will be provided with cayenne pepper gel by the end of December. The Société de transport de Montréal (STM) believes this additional tool will help “deter” anyone who wants to attack its agents.
Published at 2:10 p.m.
“In his grade, the police officer, he comes to the telescopic baton very quickly. And the telescopic baton never looks elegant when you take it out. When you have drunk people, it often has no effect because the people are so drunk. The pepper will have its effect,” the general director of the STM, Marie-Claude Léonard, told La Presse on the sidelines of a press conference on Monday.
His group confirmed it would ask its board on Wednesday to authorize the use of pepper spray in “exceptional circumstances” for special police officers. If all goes well, they will be able to access it from the end of December, said the manager.
Our people are trained in de-escalation, but it gives them another tool. Just knowing that pepper exists will also stop people from going further. This deterrent effect can be observed in Toronto, where the measure has already been applied. This prevents injuries for everyone.
Marie-Claude Léonard, CEO of the STM
In his eyes, cayenne pepper gel enables “a situation to be controlled more quickly than with the use of force.” As for the risks of spread across the network, “it’s certainly not a zero risk, but pepper gel is less volatile than pepper spray in an environment like the subway,” says the DG. “There are actually no major incidents with this type of product in the literature. »
In short: the choice of gel formula was made so that entire stations do not have to be ventilated during use. In Montreal, it is becoming increasingly common for the STM to have to evacuate subway stations and shut down entire lines of the network because someone intentionally used an irritating gas. The phenomenon has tripled in 2022 compared to the previous year and is 10 times higher than ten years ago, La Presse previously reported.
No more “unpredictable behavior.”
For his part, the president of the STM, Éric Alan Caldwell, mentioned on Monday that the level of consumption in certain sectors “makes certain behaviors very unpredictable”. “We definitely have more situations where the outcome is unclear and where it’s really more complex,” he said in English.
“Basically, this is exactly about ensuring that our security personnel can handle situations with less damage and greater efficiency,” Mr. Caldwell insisted.
It was the Brotherhood of Constables and Peace Officers STM-CSN that initiated discussions in this direction. Its president, Kevin Grenier, claims to have requested this in view of “the increase in armed violence and the increasing number of interventions on mentally disturbed people”.
“We are happy with the news. We have another opportunity to ensure a safe intervention for ourselves, the clients and the person with whom we are intervening,” explains Mr. Grenier.
Nevertheless, “close monitoring” is carried out to ensure the validity of the use of cayenne pepper gel, assures the STM. It also introduces a user support protocol that is “peppered”.
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17.88% In 2022, “323 use-of-force incidents occurred, an increase of 17.88% compared to 2019,” said a report from the Standards Commission, the Equity, Health and Safety at Work Center (CNESST ) was drawn up following a union complaint received by La Presse last June.