The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM; ) is the municipal police agency for the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and the neighbouring communities in the urban agglomeration of Montreal. With over 4,500 officers and more than 1,300 civilian staff, it is the second-largest municipal police agency in Canada after the Toronto Police Service. History The Montreal Police Service was created on March 15, 1843. At that time, there were 51 police officers in Montreal. The first officers did not wear uniforms. In order to be recognizable as police officers by civilians, the first uniforms were created in 1848. In 1853, they won the right to carry firearms in the performance of their duties. In the early twentieth century, the Montreal Police Service counted 467 constables, inspectors and managers. The force was subdivided, as squads of morality and local departments were created. The size of the police force remained roughly the same from the beginning of the century until 1930, when it hired more staff in the context of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. During the Great Depression, tens of thousands of workers lost their jobs and there was an increase in crime. In the late 1930s, the Montreal Police Service had about 1,500 employees. Following the progress of scientific analysis, a mobile laboratory was created in 1957. It evolved and changed in the 1980s to become the technical section. The Museum of the Montreal Police () was established in 1992 to preserve the history of the Montreal Police Service. Leadership The following is a list of Chiefs and Directors of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal. Organization The SPVM is led by Fady Dagher, Director (chief of police), who took over in January 2023 from Sophie Roy, who was in an interim position after Sylvain Caron retired. The rank structure and strength of the SPVM as of 2019 was: Director (1) Assistant Director (6) Chief Inspector (15) Inspector (25) Commandant (68) Lieutenant (47) and Detective Lieutenant (76) Sergeant (365) and Detective Sergeant (641) Constable (3,318) Some of the police functions carried out by the service include: Patrol police officers Intervention officers (GI, Riot police) (now called SSIS Section Support et Intervention Spécialisé) Tactical response officers (SWAT) Motorcycle officers Community relations officers Physical surveillance officers (shadowing) Section chiefs Investigators K-9 unit officers Mounted patrol officers Marine patrol officers Patrol supervisors Parking enforcement officers