Safe living environment
An individual’s choice of place to live is often influenced by how safe it is. To that end, Québec has one of the lowest homicide rates in the world, lower than Australia, France, Canada and England (source: Statistics Canada). Montreal is also ranked one of safest cities in the world.
Québec saw its crime rate drop 1% between 2007 and 2008, which is part of a general downward trend in the last 15 years (source: 2008 Québec crime statistics, ministère de la Sécurité publique, June 2010).
Québec has 4 police forces:
- the municipal police force, which is active in most cities and towns
- the Sûreté du Québec, which is the provincial police force active throughout the province, particularly on roads and rural areas that have no municipal police
- the Royal Canadian Mounted Police force which enforces federal laws
- the Aboriginal police forces, which are active in specific Aboriginal reserves according to general tripartite agreements between their band council, the provincial government and the federal government.
A preventive approach
Prevention is the preferred approach of police departments in the fight against crime. In cities,
neighbourhood police, offer an additional force that enables law enforcement officers to work more closely with the community. The feeling of safety and quality of life enjoyed by citizens are greatly improved for that reason.
