MONTREAL -- Provincial and Montreal police more than doubled the number of tickets they handed out last week to people disobeying health measures, as officers give out fewer warnings and more fines.
Montreal police (SPVM) reported Monday that officers handed out 353 tickets between Dec. 14 and Dec. 20 while the Surete du Quebec (SQ) gave out 68 fines during the same time period.
Much of the SPVM's tickets appear to have been handed out during Sunday's demonstration against the health measures where police said they handed out 269 infractions. Montreal police said they received 530 calls during the same week.
The SQ reported that they also gave out 585 warnings over the week.
By comparison, the SPVM reported handing out 74 tickets (587 calls) between Dec. 7 and Dec. 13, while the SQ doled out 34 (785 warnings).
SPVM spokesperson Jean-Pierre Brabant said officers are handing out more tickets and less warnings now, but that patrols remain stable.
"We're not putting more patrollers, we're asking the public call 911 and we will have officers go there," he said. "We're still doing the same thing, and following what securite publique is telling us."
From Nov. 30 to Dec. 20, the SPVM handed out 544 $1,546 tickets for those either not wearing a mask, gathering or failing to properly distance themselves from others (1,527 calls), which is 106 more than the number handed out in November (438).
The SPVM reported handing out 3,819 infractions (477 per month) from March to November.
The SQ gave 121 tickets in December in addition to giving 8,057 warnings and advising 18,873 drivers of the health measures that were in force.
On Montreal's South Shore, Longueuil police issued 27 tickets from Dec. 1 to 22, and received 168 calls regarding regulations up to Dec. 18.
Laval police spokesperson Evelyne Boudreau said officers to the north of Montreal have handed out 17 tickets in December.
