Quebec Provincial Police
| Sûreté du Québec | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | SQ |
Coat of Arms granted by the Canadian Heraldic Authority
|
|
Badge of the Sûreté du Québec
|
|
Flag of the Sûreté du Québec
|
|
| Motto | Service, Intégrité, Justice Service, Integrity, Justice |
| Agency overview | |
| Formed | May 1, 1870 |
| Legal personality | Governmental: Government agency |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| Operations jurisdiction* | Province of Quebec, Canada |
 |
|
| Map of Sûreté du Québec's jurisdiction. | |
| Size | 1,542,056 km2 |
| Population | 7,651,531 |
| General nature |
|
| Operational structure | |
| Overviewed by | The Queen in Right of Quebec |
| Headquarters | Montreal |
| Officers | 5,269 |
| Elected officer responsible | Martin Coiteux, Ministre de la Sécurité publique |
| Agency executive | Martin Prud’homme, Directeur Général |
| Districts | 10 |
| Website | |
| http://www.sq.gouv.qc.ca | |
| Footnotes | |
| * Divisional agency: Division of the country, over which the agency has usual operational jurisdiction. | |
Sûreté du Québec (French: [syʁte dy kebɛk], Quebec Safety), abbreviated SQ, is the provincial police force for the Canadian province of Quebec. No official English name exists, but Quebec Provincial Police is a common translation. 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 Toronto Police Service, Ontario Provincial Police, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police).
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. Members of the force can also legally act as forest conservation agents for example. The Sûreté du Québec is also responsible for providing municipal police services to municipalities in the province that do not otherwise have municipal or regional police services. Currently that includes municipalities with under 50,000 people. As such, the force is mainly present in small rural and suburban areas. The force also patrols provincial highways. In addition, the Sûreté du Québec can investigate any incident that involves wrongdoing by a municipal police force or a case where a police intervention caused death.
In the early 2000s, the force absorbed many smaller police services (e.g., Drummondville and Saint-Hyacinthe).
On February 1, 1870, the Quebec provincial government created the Police provinciale du Québec 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.
...
Wikipedia