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Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante attended Coiteux’s press conference and echoed his reassurance that day-to-day police services will not be affected by the trouble at the top.

“This crisis has been going on for a long time and that has a big impact on Montrealers and how they trust their police officers, and that’s too bad because they do an amazing job every day,” Plante said. “It’s too bad that (Pichet) was not able to … solve the problems and bring back the trust. But this is the right thing to do … We want to make sure we can change some of the organizational culture so the trust in our police (service) comes back.”

Photo by Dave Sidaway / Montreal Gazette

Coiteux was asked why he did not immediately fire Pichet, considering the serious shortcomings outlined in the report.

Suspending Pichet is a first step, Coiteux said.

“We can’t skip any steps. The suspension permits us to begin the work of an interim administration. There is information that I will receive thanks to that interim administrator, and we will decide whether this suspension will lead to a definitive dismissal or something else. In the meantime, the city will be able to begin the work of finding a successor.”

He said that for now, Prud’homme will act as both interim administrator and interim chief of police, but it is possible that Prud’homme will continue as interim administrator, even after a new police chief is named.

Some names, dates and facts are blacked out in the copy of the Bouchard report that was made public Wednesday. But in his conclusion, Bouchard recommends his findings be submitted in their entirety to the Justice Department and other authorities, so investigations can be properly completed where evidence was illegally withheld by the department.