Cadets hit Montreal streets to take over light-changing duties

After years of paying millions of dollars in overtime to getexperienced police officers to keep the traffic flowing through construction zones by manually changing traffic lights, Montrealers will finally be seeing some savings.

A total of 125cadets will take over the majority of traffic duties at work sites this construction season.

The majority of those cadets have now been trained and deployed. There are still 30 left to be hired and trained before Montreal police reach their target.

"We're very glad to see progress being made on this front," saidCoun. Alex Norris, the chair of the city's public security committee, callingtheexclusive use ofpolice officers "a colossal waste of resources, money and expertise."

Millions in overtime

The Montreal police service budgeted$3.8 million in 2018 to hire and train the cadets.

A cadet costs the city around $17 an hour.

By comparison, using police officers to do light-changingdutycosts around $60 an hour. The work is done on overtime and doesn't affect regular operations.

Last year, Montreal police officers spent 150,748hours directing traffic or changing lights at city-managed construction sites. That cost the city$7.8 million in overtime.

Police spent another 34,617 hours in 2017 managing traffic at construction sites that were not owned by the city, according to documents released toCBCthrough an access to information request.

That costmore than $3 million butwas paid by third parties.

However, the bill for most of that police work went to other taxpayer-funded entities,including the Quebec Ministry of Transport, the consortium responsible for theTurcotInterchange work and the federal bridge corporation.

Roadwork extravaganza

It's already shaping up to be a challenging summer on the streets of Montreal.

The city is spending $1.14 billion on what it has called an"ambitious plan" of road and sewer work. That's an increase of nearly 50 per cent over last year's spending and a record high for the city.

The aim is to do all the necessary work on any one project in one shot, so no further work will beneeded on the same site for at least five years.

The city and the Montreal police work togetherto determine which sites require police presence and at what times.

"There's been so many work sites that we have that we've had no choice but to do it," saidInsp.AndrDurocher.

"It's unprecedented. I've been a police officer for over 30 years, and I have not seen that many work sites that we've seen in the past three or four years."

The priority is to ensure "vulnerable" road users pedestrians and cyclists can get through safely, said Montreal police Cmdr. Sylvain Duboisof the road operations support unit.

Cadets will start out at sites that are less complex, but the idea is that they will be able to work at any intersection where they're needed, Dubois said.

"We have police officers who are able to coach them and help them with their work to make sure they develop good techniques," he said.

"After that, cadets will be used at all construction sites. There is no distinction."

Collective agreement allowed for shift

All of the newly hired cadets will be specifically assigned to traffic control.

Theyallreceive three days of training directly from the Montreal police and further supervision and support while out on the streets.

To qualify for the job, they need a high school diploma and to pass a police background check, but they don't necessarily need to be in training to become an officer, Dubois said.

A few cadets who had been working atfestivals were trained and deployed last fall, after the Montreal Police Brotherhood signed a new collective agreement which allowed the Montreal police service to assigncadets to up to 75 per cent of the constructions site where police are required.

Under that agreement, a minimum of 25 per cent of sites must be supervised by police officers.

"What we've seen with the more experienced cadets is it's going very well, and they end up having a method of working that's very safe and as effective as a police officer," Dubois said.

It remains to be seen how much cadets will save taxpayers, but thecity expects it to be in the millions.

"No matter what the result is at the end of year one, I'm sure it's going to get better in year two because they will develop an expertise, so therefore we'll be able to use them even more," said Durocher.