Towing: the POLICE will ensure that the contracts are respected

Photo Agence QMI, Sebastien St-Jean

Sarah Daoust-Braun

Monday, 26 march, 2018 20:07

UPDATE
Monday, 26 march, 2018 20:07

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Since Friday, agents of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) will make rounds of inspection to ensure that exclusive contracts of the towing industry are respected.

A special team has been created by the police service to help the players on the ground, in partnership with the section for organized crime of the POLICE.

“It is an excellent thing to have granted this power of surveillance by the SPVM, who has the tools to ensure that there is rigor in this area here,” commented the president of the Commission of public safety Alex Norris.

In the past few years, Montréal has not granted systematically contracts for the towing, and some sectors of the city have never been covered by exclusive contracts.

Taking advantage of this situation, entrepreneurs linked to organized crime have made use of violence and intimidation in order to “protect” the areas that they considered to be their own.

Random spot checks

“This is a great step forward compared to last year, this is the day and the night. Before, there was no exclusivity contracts, the companies were not verified, it was a bit of the “wild, Wild West,” said the spokesperson for the Office of the inspector-general Michel Forget.

Random audits will be conducted by officers to ensure that contracts are adhered to in the 13 sectors identified by Montreal, how in fact state the Office of the inspector general (ig) in its annual report published on Monday.

The tenders for these 13 contracts of exclusivity will be launched in the spring. The selected companies will then be subject to investigation.

It is the POLICE who will take charge of the regulation of the towing, which was formerly entrusted to the Bureau du taxi de Montréal.

The BIG has received 269 complaints, has opened 20 investigations, has conducted 127 surveillance operations and has published four reports in 2017.