1. Function

2. History
    Montebello incident 

3. Chiefs and Directors-general

4. Districts

5. Rank badges

6. Uniforms

7. Fleet

8. Equipment
    Licence Plate Recognition System 

9. See also

10. Notes

11. References

12. External links

The Sûreté du Québec ({{IPA-fr|syʁte dy kebɛk|lang}}, Quebec Safety), abbreviated SQ, is the provincial police force for the Canadian province of Quebec.^[5] No official English name exists,{{#tag:ref|Being a minority, Quebec English speakers frequently use common or official French language terms instead of the more recognised English terms of North-American English. see Quebec English,^[6][7]|group="nb"}} but the agency's name is sometimes translated to Quebec Provincial Police in English-language sources. The headquarters of the Sûreté du Québec are located on Parthenais street in Montreal and the force employs roughly 5,200 officers. SQ is the second largest provincial force (behind the Ontario Provincial Police) and fourth largest force in Canada (behind the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Toronto Police Service, and the Ontario Provincial Police).

Function

The primary function of the Sûreté du Québec is to enforce provincial laws, some municipal bylaws, the Criminal Code, and many other laws throughout Quebec and to assist municipal police forces when needed.

At the local scale, the SQ is responsible for providing local police services to municipalities that chose not to have their own (mostly localities with under 50,000 of population), in exchange of payment relative to their size. In other cities, the Sûreté du Québec can also take over crime investigations from their municipal forces, when required by the Police Act of the province – according to the severity of the crime and the size of the population (e.g.: among other, the SQ will take in charge any homicide with no imminent arrest in a city of less than 250,000 of population, even if it has its own police department)^[8] As such, the SQ is usually present in smaller, rural or suburban communities, and is not often visible in the streets of urban centres such as Montreal and Quebec City, whose police forces must provide a wide range of services and operations, as per law. In those cities however, the Sûreté still has large offices where various investigations are conducted.

At the provincial scale, it is responsible, among others, for patrolling highways of Quebec (including urban ones), preserving the integrity of governmental institutions, coordinating large scale investigations (such as during the biker war in the 1990s), maintaining and sharing with others forces the criminal intelligence database of Quebec, etc.^[9] In addition, the SQ can provide technical assistance to Quebec's independent investigation unit (BEI) in any incident involving possible wrongdoing by another police department, such as death and serious injuries. Should the SQ be involved in such an incident, assistance (if needed) will be provided either by the police services of Montreal or of Quebec City.^[10]

History

On February 1, 1870, the Quebec provincial government created the Police provinciale du Québec^[11] under the direction of its first commissioner, Judge Pierre-Antoine Doucet. This new force took over the headquarters of the Quebec City municipal police, which were then disbanded, although the city relaunched a municipal force in 1877.

In 1900, two distinct provincial police forces were created: the Office of Provincial Detectives of Montreal, in response to a crime wave in that city, and the Revenue Police, whose mission was to collect taxes. In 1902, the government decided that the provincial police should no longer be directed by a judge but by an officer of the police themselves. Augustin McCarthy was chosen as the first chief drawn from the ranks of the police.

In 1922, two headquarters were established, one in Quebec City, headed by McCarthy, and one in Montreal, headed by Dieudonné Daniel Lorrain. The Office of Provincial Detectives of Montreal became part of the general provincial police in that year. The Quebec division included 35 police officers and two detectives.

In 1925, police officers started patrolling on motorcycles. In 1929 and 1930, the structure of the force was reformed and the agency adopted a new name as Sûreté provinciale du Québec which was later shortened to its present name.^[12]

Montebello incident

The Sûreté du Québec admitted in August 2007 that they had used undercover police posing as protestors at the 2007 Montebello Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America meetings. This admission was made after a video captured by protestors was widely circulated in the Canadian media and made available on YouTube.^[13] It is not uncommon to make use of undercover agents at protests of this kind, but the video was especially controversial because it appeared to show one of the officers carrying a rock, suggesting to some viewers that the police may have been acting as agents provocateurs by inciting violence.

Chiefs and Directors-general

• Pierre-Antoine Doucet (1870–1877)
• Jean-Baptiste Amyot (1877–1878)
• Alexandre Chauveau (1880–1899)
• Augustin McCarthy (1902–1932)
• Dieudonné Daniel Lorrain (1922–1928)
• Maurice-Charles Lalonde (1929–1936)
• Philippe Aubé (1936–1937)
• Philippe-Auguste Piuze (1937–1940)
• Marcel Gaboury (1940–1944)
• Joseph-Paul Lamarche (1944–1950)
• Hilaire Beauregard (1954–1960)
• Josaphat Brunet (1960–1965)
• J. Adrien Robert (1965–1968)
• Maurice St-Pierre (1969–1973)
• Paul-A. Benoît (1973–1974)
• Jacques Beaudoin (1974–1988)
• Robert Lavigne (1988–1995)
• Serge Barbeau (1995–1996)
• Guy Coulombe (1996–1998)
• Florent Gagné (1998–2003)
• Normand Proulx (2004–June 30, 2008)
• Richard Deschesnes (July 1, 2008–2012)
• Mario Laprise (2012-2014)
• Luc Fillion INT. (2014)
• Martin Prud'Homme (2014-2018)
• Yves Morency INT. (2017-2018)
• Martin Prud’Homme (2018-)

Districts

1. Bas-Saint-Laurent-Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine
2. Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean
3. Capitale-Nationale-Chaudière-Appalaches
4. Mauricie-Centre-du-Québec
5. Estrie
6. Montréal-Laval-Laurentides-Lanaudière
7. Outaouais
8. Abitibi-Témiscamingue-Nord-du-Québec
9. Côte-Nord
10. Montérégie

Rank badges

Rank insignia of the Sûreté du Québec are on contained on "slip on" sleeves worn on the epaulettes of uniform jacket or shirt shoulders.

Constables (Agent) do not have any insignia on their uniform. SQ formerly had the rank of Corporal above Constable rank. Team leaders have epaulette with the words Chef d'équipe.

Uniforms

Early uniforms were British in origins including the use of the Custodian helmet, with the Kepi later added as well.^[14] The force adopted a uniform with a more distinct green tone, as well as a peaked cap, in the 1960s.^[15]

The emblem of the force changed in the 1970s when the old provincial coat of arms gave way to the fleur-de-lis.

In late 2016, Martin Prud'Homme, Director General of the SQ, announced the uniforms would be changed. Shirts and coats will be of a darker shade of olive green, the patches, the caps and the bulletproof vests will become black, and the pants blue-black. One of the justification was that the old green uniform was too similar to that of a soldier.^[16]

Fleet

Progressively starting in 2017, the marked patrol cars are set to become black with white doors, on which the word "POLICE" will be more in evidence.^[17]

• Ford Taurus
• Chevrolet Impala
• Chevrolet Tahoe
• Dodge Charger
• Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor - retired
• Chevrolet Caprice - retired
• Plymouth Fury - retired
• Chevrolet Bel Air - retired
• Ford LTD (North America) - retired

• Dodge Dakota
• Ford E-250
• Ford F-350
• Ford F-450
• Ram 2500 pickup
• Chevrolet Tahoe

• BMW Police Motorcycle
• Mikado bicycles

• Prevost Car Command Post
• Hummer H1 Armoured Truck
• International 7500 support vehicle
• APC
• Cambli International Thunder 1 ARV (with International 7500 chassis)^[18]

• Bell 206
• Bell 206 LT
• Bell 412

• Doral Patrol Boat
• Bombardier Sea-doo

• Bombardier Ski-doo Snowmobile
• Grizzly ATV

Equipment

The standard-issue weapon of Sûreté du Québec is the Glock pistol loaded in 9×19mm Parabellum caliber. Various models are adopted such as the standard Glock 17, compact Glock 19 and sub-compact Glock 26. Tactical officers used CQB Close Quarter Battle combat rifle—variant of Colt Canada C8 rifle.

Licence Plate Recognition System

The Sûreté du Québec has been using the LPRS systems since 2009. The objective of the LPRS is to make the streets and highways safer by removing vehicles not authorized to be on the road. The hotlist plate database can consist of the following types:

• unregistered plate (not paid at DMV/SAAQ)
• Stolen vehicle
• AMBER Alert
• Wanted Vehicle

The LPRS are installed on 10 Sûreté du Québec vehicles. The LPRS integrator is Gtechna. Gtechna is primarily a citations issuance and management software developer which integrates mission critical technologies such as Licence Plate Recognition (LPR) to streamline the enforcement of moving and parking violations.

See also

• Service de police de la Ville de Montréal
• State police
• Ontario Provincial Police
• Royal Newfoundland Constabulary
• Newfoundland Rangers
• Royal Canadian Mounted Police

Notes

References

• Haru (Singer)
• Haruspex (beetle)
• Haruspex bivittis
• Haruspex brevipes
• Haruspex celatus
• Haruspex daithmus
• Haruspex inscriptus
• Haruspex insulsus
• Haruspex lineolatus
• Haruspex mentitus
• Haruspex modestus
• Haruspex ornatus
• Haruspex pictilis
• Haruspex quadripustulatus
• Haruspex submaculatus
• Haruta
• Haruta and Chika
• Haruta & Chika
• Harutaea
• Harutaea flavizona
• Harutaeographa adusta
• Harutaeographa akos
• Harutaeographa babai
• Harutaeographa bicolorata
• Harutaeographa bidui