Online Reporting (Synopsis)

Service de police de la Ville de Montréal

Description: In operation since 2013, the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) online reporting service allows citizens to file police reports online for certain offences against property, such as simple theft, simple mischief and lost property. The SPVM is also running a pilot with the online reporting system whereby simple "hit-and-run accident" and "missing person" reports from certain institutions, such as hospitals, can also be filed online.
Objective: The main objectives of online reporting are to free up police officers for patrols; offer a time- and cost-effective way for people to file police reports; reduce traffic in neighbourhood police stations; and use the Internet to connect with the community.
Outcomes: The initiative achieved all its key objectives. User feedback polls and "cost versus savings" evaluations will be done once the initiative has been in place long enough to generate sufficient data. To date, the SPVM online reporting system has only experienced minor issues noted through initial feedback, including report rejection due to firewall issues, and mislabelled incidents (e.g., reports filed as "damage/mischief to a vehicle" instead of "hit-and-run").
Resources: The costs associated with the implementation were for human resources, software acquisition and five years of post-implementation support.
Pillars:
Province: Quebec
Keywords:
Record Entry Date: 2015-03-01
Date modified: