Cop’s career filled with caring & community
Kristine Berey
The range of Montreal Police Commander Michel Lecompte’s law enforcement experience is breathtaking. Since the start of his career in 1980, Lecompte has been involved in controlling street gangs, investigating shootings, arson, drugs, fraud and homicide.
But for Lecompte, police work has always been a vocation. He says that fighting crime is only a small part of being a police officer, that the job is essentially about helping people. “Police work is 75% social work, and one of the most important jobs in life,” Lecompte says. “Who do you call when you need help at 3 am? Other organizations are mostly there 9 to 5. ”
This is why, throughout his career, Lecompte has worked tirelessly in the communities he has served, doing outreach and fundraising with spectacular results. According to Sid Stephens, executive director of Sun Youth, Lecompte has raised ¼ million dollars over the years for several charities by organizing a plethora of fundraisers, such as Corporate Olympics, involving the business community and anyone who ’ll listen. “Here is a high ranking police officer, a good listener, a good worker and a good friend to all those involved in the community, ” Stephens says. “He thought it was important to reach out and got others to think like him, that you have to be part of the community you serve. ”
Under Lecompte’s command, young, mostly French Canadian police officers did their training at the YM-YWHA. “Lecompte felt it was important they get to know that sector of society,” Stephens says. “He also participated in all the festivals of the Jamaican community.”
Adrian Bercovici of the Generations Foundation remembers his first encounter with Lecompte. At the time, Bercovici was director of the Old Brewery Mission shelter and Lecompte didn ’t want to use police cars to pick up itinerants sleeping in the streets. “We arranged to book a couple of taxis to pick them up,” Bercovici says. “The individuals were more comfortable. We could work with them better and the police didn ’t have to waste their time.”
Lecompte has a special soft spot for kids. When the police were repeatedly called to one particular school, Lecompte took time to speak to the principal. He learned that 125 children suffered from chronic hunger. Relying on the relationship he had forged with Bercovici, by then executive director of Generations Foundation, Lecompte arranged for food to be brought to the school regularly. You could hear the pride and enthusiasm in his voice during the telephone interview. “Since Adrian, every month a huge truck comes to the school, milk comes every day and it ’s been like that ever since,” he says. “And do you know what happened? Their marks increased by 10-15% and we were never called there again except for prevention. ”
Though he’s worked with the toughest kids from the poorest neighbourhoods, he feels at ease when working with youth, no matter how aggressive. “I was born in Pointe St. Charles into a very poor family,” Lecompte recalls. His father was vanquished by alcohol and his mother left the family home when Lecompte was 9 years old. “I left home at 14 and I wasn’t really a good boy when I was young. When I see kids with attitude, I say ‘It’s nothing compared to what I had.’”
Where Lecompte grew up, the police were universally seen as the enemy. When he chose a career with the Montreal Police Department, nobody cheered. His father only admitted to being proud of his son shortly before he died. “When you grow up like I did, you become a crook or a drug dealer. Police officer was not [considered to be] very honourable. ”
He sometimes showed teenagers the house where he spent his childhood. “I used to take kids in trouble to show them where I lived. When we had a storm in winter, we couldn ’t close the door because there was so much snow. Our house was full of cockroaches. We couldn ’t clean it. I did it to show kids that it’s possible to change, to do something without drugs, without bad things.”
Outreach and prevention are Lecompte’s specialities and he has sometimes used unconventional ways to get around obstacles. When the police invited Tamil immigrant families to get to know them, the women didn ’t come. “We invited 20 women to one home in the kitchen,” Lecompte recalls. “The women would not go into a police station but they did come to thekitchen and we were able to tell them ‘This is Canada […] women have rights.’”
Lecompte also understands the dread some immigrants feel for officials in uniform and has worked with Russian immigrants to attenuate their fear.
Although now officially retired, Lecompte remains involved in his community. “I’m involved in a lot of things in Île Bizard and a lot of people call me when they’re stuck. I’m always gonna be busy.”
He’s been asked to solve a myriad of problems. “But don’t call me if you’ve got a parking ticket,” Lecompte laughs. “There’s nothing I can do!”
