The city of Montreal's mobility squad has been in place for a year trying to keep traffic as fluid as possible.
But it now has the power to issue tickets for parking and moving violations - and they've been busy: over 600 tickets given out since July 1st.
Besides downtown Ville Marie, the Plateau Mont-Royal and the South West, the mobility squad is now covering three more boroughs: CDN-NDG, Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve and Rosemont-Petite Patrie. The number of inspectors has nearly doubled, from 6 to 11.
That has meant even more interventions: just over 7000 this past summer alone. That compares to more than 4,600 incidents in its first eight months of operation.
Sylvain Ouellet, the executive committee member in charge of infrastructure said that most of the time, things are settled amicably.
"Nine times out of ten, when the mobility squad asks people to leave, they leave," said Ouellet in an interview with CJAD 800.
"Unfortunately, there's always some people who don't want to leave if you don't have tickets."
Inspectors already had the power to shut down illegal construction sites, have illegally parked vehicles towed or have the way a street is used or blocked modified.
"One of the biggest issues that we want to solve with the mobility squad is construction workers that are not requesting any permit to occupy the street or who have a permit but don't follow what is written on it." said Ouellet.
The fines can vary - from around $80 for parking illegally to as much as $400 for a first and more major offence.