Fady Dagher next chief of Montreal police

Fady Dagher has been selected to head the Montreal police service and Mayor Valérie Plante is expected to announce the news Thursday morning, Radio-Canada has learned.

Dagher has risen to local fame in recent years for his work as chief of police in Longueuil, Que., on Montreal's South Shore, where he implemented a model of community policing that attracted the attention of the provincial government and police services across the country.

Dagher, who holds a master's degree in business administration for managers from McGill-HEC Montréal, has a 25-year history with the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), where he worked his way up to assistant chief. 

In 2015, he was among the finalists for the position of chief, but Philippe Pichet was picked instead. Dagher went on to become chief of the Longueuil police in 2017.

Quebec's public security minister, Geneviève Guilbault, called Dagher's approach to community policing in Longueuil avant-garde in June 2021, and as she announced a hefty provincial investment in the program, said she hoped other municipalities and police forces would adopt it.

Dagher's project, which began as a pilot project in 2019, was called RÉSO. Its goal was for certain officers to work within specific communities and to get to know them well enough to be able refer vulnerable populations to resources other than police before matters became criminal. 

Sylvain Caron announced his retirement as chief of the SPVM in March. Sophie Roy has served as interim chief since Caron stepped down for personal reasons.

A selection committee was formed to pick the new chief. It was made up of three senior civil servants and three elected municipal officials.

Now that the selection has been made, the appointment will have to be ratified by the Montreal agglomeration council and then, the city's executive committee. 

Then it moves up to the Quebec government's cabinet to ratify, meaning the appointment will likely be finalized in early 2023, Radio-Canada reports.

Finally, a protocol ceremony will be held the transfer of power from Caron to Dagher.

On Wednesday evening, the Longueuil mayor's cabinet issued a statement that congratulated Dagher for the new appointment and acknowledged his service to the city.

"We would like to thank Mr. Dagher for all the work accomplished over the past five years, and we wish him the best for the future," the statement says.

The cabinet sees the spread of this "new police culture" as a benefit to the greater metropolitan area and Quebec as a whole, it says.