Montreal's transit authority is poised to equip its security officers with cayenne pepper gel, a weapon it says is more appropriate than batons to use on people in crisis.
The Société de transport de Montréal, or STM, plans to deploy the gel among its special constables beginning in December, pending approval from its board at a meeting Wednesday evening. The special constables do not carry firearms.
"When confronted with people in crisis, the humane mentality demands that we try to de-escalate, but if these efforts fail, this approach must continue by seeking to control the person while avoiding causing further injury or being injured despite the aggression suffered," the transit authority said in an email statement.
"Using cayenne pepper in gel form is … less aggressive and causes fewer injuries than using a telescopic baton."
As well, the gel aerosol is less volatile than traditional sprays, says the STM, and therefore less likely to contaminate areas beyond the target. Unlike sprays, which emit clouds, pepper gels generally take the form of steady streams.
The STM points to the existing use of pepper aerosols among transit officers in Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver and Winnipeg, among other Canadian cities.
Transit security officers in Montreal would have to undergo 10 hours of training on gel use, including what the STM calls "mandatory personal experimentation." The training program, which the STM says will follow police academy rules, would also take into account the particularities of transit environments, such as ventilation and patterns of air movement in the metro system.
Fo Niemi, executive director of the Montreal-based Center for Research-Action on Race Relations, says he hopes the STM will better explain how equipping constables with the new tool can meet the goals of violence prevention and de-escalation.
"There's a certain level of force that can and should be used in order to ensure public safety and to protect riders," he conceded. But he said he wonders how the pepper gel will "address the level of violence or the quantity of violent acts in the subway."
"We don't know yet. And I think that's the piece of information that … would be in the public interest to divulge."
For James Hughes, president of Montreal homeless services organization Old Mission Brewery, the prospect of STM officers armed with pepper gel is a cause for concern.
He contends that the best way to intervene in situations involving people in crisis "is with tremendous training and tremendous patience."
"It's not with a device of this kind, which can be harmful and which in fact might have the opposite impact in some cases, of not de-escalating, but re-escalating a situation."
Hughes also worries impatient STM special constables may come to use the gel as a reflex.
He said he'd rather see the transit authority invest in better training so officers have the "ability to take people who are often acting out but are nonviolent and make sure they get well."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2023.
The Canadian Press
