According to recent reports, police in the Canadian province of Quebec have cautioned citizens against uploading surveillance footage of their packages being stolen to the internet. Law enforcement officers claimed posting the footage could potentially interfere with the “private life” of the alleged criminals.
CTV News Montreal videojournalist Olivia O’Malley explained the growing problem of package theft in the province, particularly around consumer-heavy holidays. “Montreal West is known for its large porches, but around the holidays, those porches are a big target for thieves or ‘porch pirates,’” O’Malley stated.
“It’s something we deal with on a daily basis,” explained Montreal West councilor responsible for public security Lauren Small-Pennefather, who chimed in on the issue. “You have people that are following the vehicles, and when they see a parcel that’s dropped off, they then go and take the parcel if nobody comes to the door to retrieve the parcel,” she continued.
Despite these concerns shared by citizens across Montreal, the police force of the province, the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), warned victims of package theft from sharing footage of their alleged perpetrators. “You cannot post the images yourself because you have to remember, in Canada, we have a presumption of innocence and posting that picture could be a violation of private life,” said SQ communications officer Lt. Benoit Richard.
Richard continued explaining that any evidence of someone committing such a crime should be given solely to police to conduct a proper investigation. “If you get some proof that somebody might have stolen something, call the police, give that proof to the police,” he added. “We’ll do the investigation, bring that person to justice and file some charges.”
In light of these comments from the SQ, many have shared their frustrations, suggesting that the police force is more interested in protecting alleged criminals than upholding the rule of law. “It’s 2024, so of course the police care more about criminals than victims of crime,” wrote Canadian journalist Ezra Levant.
Conservative commentator Chris Tomlinson weighed in on the matter, criticizing the Quebec police. “The Quebec police are saying this because it embarrasses them in how much theft occurs without consequence,” Tomlinson said. “Report it to them, and they’ll file it away and pretend it never happened.”
Watch SQ communications officer Lt. Benoit Richard here:
As each day passes, law and order in our urban environments seem to be a relic of the past. The American Tribune recently reported on a California store owner who endured a devastating $70,000 loss as a large group of looters ransacked his store.
“This has never happened to us before. We’ve seen ‘street takeovers’ in the area, but it’s never anything like this,” said the store owner, Ruben Ramirez Jr. “I do hope they see justice, but more than anything, I just want my business back. I want to be able to serve the community how we’ve been doing it for all these years and make everybody happy with our food. It’s been — it’s going to be a little devastating. We don’t know the effects of how long it’s going to take us to recover completely,” the business owner stated.
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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