by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR

When filmgoer Ed Arzouian headed to a flick at the AMC Forum theatre he noticed something entirely different about the security guard on duty. The guard was wearing a regular Montreal police officer's uniform.

Montreal police are ready and willing to be hired. In fact, they're hoping to encourage more companies to do what the theatre did: hire actual armed, on-duty and uniformed cops.

The hire-a-cop routine is standard for the AMC theatre chain, according to a rep at their Kansas City headquarters. "We make it a point to have quality security presence in our buildings and (hiring police) is a policy in almost all of our locations. I'm not going to elaborate on the duties of the guards at our theatres."

The practice of hiring cops for private duties is common throughout North America, but has rarely been seen in Montreal. The trend has Arzouian - a former longtime nightclub bouncer - asking a myriad of worried questions. "If you get in an argument with a rental cop, you can file a police report, but when it's an on-duty cop and you do the same thing, who will the police listen to? If the cop is injured on private duty, does the city's insurance pay for it? What happens if cops end up working for criminals?

"We don't live in a police state and I like it that way. Once you start putting police all over the place, including private businesses, it become a slippery slope. Where do you draw the line? If there's a problem, police should be called in to respond to that and then leave."

Piece of the pie

Montreal police flack Michel Fontaine says that the normal collective bargaining agreement applies for the cops on duty for private firms, including injury provisions. The cop-for-hire program, organized by the agreement's commercialization section, often entails operations such as providing motorcades or shutting off streets for movie shoots, and Fontaine promises that the police won't work for criminals.

"We have methods of collecting information (on companies)," he writes in an e-mail. "We have personnel involved in this domain. I can't specify further for security reasons."

The Montreal Police Brotherhood is keen on private companies hiring the force to do private work. "It doesn't happen much in Quebec. We think there should be a lot more," says Brotherhood vice-president Yves Francoeur. "Here policing is all paid by taxpayers but in places like Toronto and Vancouver, let's say you want to put on a Britney Spears show and you need 75 officers, the owner has to pay for the salaries of 75 officers, otherwise he doesn't get a permit to put on the show."

Francoeur encourages private companies to consider hiring a real city cop for their security needs. "It's more expensive but citizens have a lot more trust in us."

One large security company contacted declined to comment on the issue for fear it would damage relations with police, but Hyacinth Monrose, VP for the fast-growing Maximum Security, says, "The police are more efficient, no doubt, and they give credibility to a business, but they charge a huge amount, whereas security guards are also well-trained and make $12 an hour." Monrose points out that the police aren't totally running security companies into the ground. "For example, in alarm response, police have decided they don't want to do it anymore, so now security companies get called in to examine the scene."

Whose law?

Police watchdog Yves Manseau of Action Mouvement Justice gives a thumbs down to the hire-a-cop program. "It gives the impression that the police are at the service of the rich and powerful. The police are a public service who have to enforce the criminal code and bylaws and it's their duty to uphold the law, not to be rented out.

"One of the fastest growing industries right now is the private security industry, and the police, seeing budget cuts, are eyeing this. But it's not good for the public perception of the force. It also confuses officers about their role. For example, in a landlord-tenant situation, they now usually automatically take the side of the landlord because he's the owner. This will just reinforce that tendency. The objective of the police is not to watch inside a building for an owner, it's to enforce the law. This brings down the level of respect a citizen will have for the force."