The Montreal Police Brotherhood says recent budget cuts are having a serious impact on officers' abilities to carry out their duties -- including responding efficiently to 911 calls.
The fraternity has taken out full page ads in three daily newspapers calling on Mayor Gerald Tremblay to give the police department more resources to handle emergency calls.
In cases ranging from domestic violence to fraud, the Montreal police department has "fewer and fewer resources to respond adequately to 911 calls from citizens", the ad reads.
"Police in this city have the most difficult, intense and complex job of all police forces in Quebec", brotherhood president Yves Francoeur stated in the ad.
Francoeur noted that Montreal police officers must contend with battling organized crime, street gangs, and terrorism.
The city is slashing $35 million from the police department's budget. There will be 160 fewer officers by the end of the year, and 140 newly-trained recruits are about to be let go.
