by PHILIPPE GOHIER

To curb a growing sentiment among the island's citizens that their neighbourhoods aren't safe, the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) has "optimized" its community policing efforts. Among other changes debuted on Jan. 11, 2004, the SPVM has opted to "make anti-social behaviour a true priority of community policing."

According to Mario Guérin, a spokesman for the SPVM, "Anti-social behaviours are behaviours which may or may not be criminal but have proven irritating to citizens. Our research indicates that they are among the main sources of concern of Montrealers."

So what exactly are these anti-social behaviours that keep Montrealers so worried? Twenty-six new call codes (the numeric codes used between dispatchers and patrol officers) have been implemented by the SPVM to report instances of anti-social behaviour; they range from the patently criminal (drug-dealing on street corners, street racing) to the mildly troublesome (spitting, illegal postering). Evidently, the SPVM's net for insolence is a wide one: also included as infractions are "the disturbing presence of vagrants or beggars," "the presence of squeegees" and the "assembly of youth in a public place."

That begging and vagrancy have been explicitly included by the SPVM as instances of "anti-social behaviour" has raised a few eyebrows amongst the city's poverty activists.

"Co-existence between homeless people and society at large is difficult enough as it is," says Bernard St-Jacques, a community organizer with the Réseau d'aide aux personnes seules et itinérantes de Montréal (RAPSIM). "Openly associating homelessness with uncivilized behaviour sends a message to the average citizen that homeless people are harmful and dangerous."

Prior to the changes, calls related to issues of non-criminal anti-social behaviour were loosely filed under banners of "public mischief," "disturbing the peace" or various municipal infractions. As such, "It was impossible to diagnose problem areas and persistent patterns of infractions," says Guérin.

The penalties haven't changed, though; in most instances, an atavistic deficiency in social skills will still set you back somewhere between $70 and $100 by way of a fine.

"It's not our intention to criminalize acts which weren't criminal before," Guérin insists. "We don't want to do what they did in New York City and simply remove homeless people and say the city's been cleaned up."

Dr. Lori G. Beaman, an associate professor of sociology at Concordia University, questions the effectiveness of the program. "It does nothing to alleviate the situation of marginalized people. All it does is displace the tension," she says.

"It certainly follows a trend in this country to focus on marginalized people. It's part of a larger movement towards a surveillance society," says Beaman. But she is quick to concede that, "The police don't sit around and dream this up by themselves; it's the result of both public and political pressure."

According to surveys published by the SPVM, 54 per cent of Montreal residents viewed anti-social behaviour as a problem on the island in 2001; 47 per cent of residents held the same view in 1996-97. And less than 15 per cent of those who felt that anti-social behaviours are a pervasive problem considered their neighbourhoods "very safe."