Hello, my friends. Have you ever wondered what being a police officer is like in Quebec? How to become one? Their salary, the ups and downs of the job, etc... This is the place! Ask any questions to the chatbot about being a policeman, and he shall always have the answer.
Being a police officer is a hard but rewarding job. Everyday is different. There is no routine. The same goes on for your duties. One day you'll be patrolling in the streets, the other day, you'll stay at the office filling paperwork. You're also always in contact with the public, whether you like it or not. Trust me, this not a job for introverts.
Depending on the police department, there could be more than 150 tasks that a police officers can perform depending on their specialization. For example, being in the SWAT, investigating crime, managing traffic, training K9 dogs, public relations etc... But speaking of the majority, their main task is to patrol an assigned area and responding to calls. It can be an urgent call such as an active shooter threat, or it can just be a trivial one, for example, two neighbours arguing over parking spots.
In a typical day, a police officer, generally with a partner, patrols an assigned area in a police cruiser, and they respond to calls. For every intervention that they do, they need to write an incident report. When their shift is about to finish, they go 30 minutes earlier in their police station and write their daily report.
The place of work really depends on the assigned task of the police officer. They can work in schools, in offices, on a boat etc. But for the case of a patrolman, the most common task, they work outside in an assigned area. When they write reports, they can do them inside their cars or in the police station.
In order to become a police officer in the province of Quebec, you need to complete a three-year degree called Police Technology. The courses in that degree are basically a mix of Law, Criminology, Self-defense etc. Only three colleges offer this program in the Greater Montreal Area, Ahuntsic College, Maisonneuve College and John Abbot College. The first and second one offer the degree in French while the third offers it in English. After that, you need to do a 15-week training in a military-style academy called the École Nationale de Police du Quebec (ENPQ). Once you graduate, you can apply to any police department throughout Canada since the ENPQ is recognized everywhere in the country.
The salary depends on the police department that you're working for. But generally speaking, in the Montreal Police Department, the starting salary is around $40 000 and after 6 years, it goes up to $87 000. This is without counting the bonuses, overtime, benefits and the increased salary when you get a promotion.
In order to stay up-to-date with a society that is always evolving, police officers will always have additional training until the day they retire. Of course, certain positions will require more training than others such as the scientific police, the SWAT, the Anti-Terrorism squad etc...
Unlike what we can see in Hollywood movies, being a police officer in Canada is generally a safe job. However, there are still some serious risks. It can range from having PTSD after responding to traumatic events, getting badly injured and even death, Fortunately, in Canada at least, these problems are less present unlike many other countries such as the US, Brazil, Mexico etc.
There is no chance that police officers will be replaced by robots since it is a job that requires a lot of human judgment. Police officers have a discretionary power. For example, it is unlikely that they will give tickets to a child who jaywalks in an empty small residential street whereas robots will strictly apply the law no matter what the situation is.
Police officers in Quebec generally retire after around 28 years in service. They can retire earlier, but they will receive a pension with penalties, or they can work more years, so they will retire with the maximum pension.
I'm currently in my first year in Police Technology. I have two years left. I'm planning to work for the Montreal Police Department. My goal will be to finish my career after holding high ranking position such as lieutenant, inspector or even deputy commissioner.
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