Summer tends to bring a lot of things to Montreal: patio season, festival crowds, and, according to police data, a steady climb in break-ins. July kept that pattern going, and this time the numbers jumped by more than they have in recent months.
The city logged roughly 569 break-ins last month, up from June’s 465 and comfortably ahead of May’s 487 too. That brings the running total to 3,254 as of July 31, according to data from the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), tracked through the city’s Vue sur la sécurité publique mapping tool.
That works out to about 18.4 break-ins a day, which is a noticeable jump from June’s daily pace of roughly 15.5. It’s the same pattern that’s held for months now: the warmer it gets, the busier the break-in map gets right along with it.
July’s total also came in just shy of the 579 break-ins logged last October, 2025’s single busiest month, which puts this July uncomfortably close to the worst stretch of last year.
Where the incidents are concentrated
The map hasn’t really shifted from where it’s been sitting all year. The centre and east of the island are still carrying most of the activity by a wide margin.
Downtown remains the single busiest cluster on the island, with Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve right behind it as one of the busiest zones in the east end.
From there, the pattern spreads through the same neighbourhoods that have shown up month after month. Villeray, Rosemont, Montreal North and François-Perrault all continue to see steady activity, and Verdun stays busy along the southern edge of the island.
On the flip side, the West Island keeps its distance from all of this. Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Pointe-Claire, Île-Bizard and Beaconsfield remain quiet compared to the central and eastern clusters.
How 2026 is trending
Seven months into the year, Montreal sits at 3,254 break-ins, which puts the city on track to finish somewhere around 5,580. That’s up again from the roughly 5,400 pace projected a month ago, and it continues a trend of the annual projection creeping higher as summer drags on.
Here’s how the annual totals have looked going back a decade:
- 2015: 9,947
- 2016: 9,483
- 2017: 8,816
- 2018: 7,052
- 2019: 6,715
- 2020: 5,733
- 2021: 4,809
- 2022: 5,554
- 2023: 6,048
- 2024: 5,844
- 2025: 6,139
Even with July’s jump, 2026 would still land below every one of the past four years if the current pace holds. But the back half of the year tends to bring the sharpest swings, so how the rest of late summer and fall play out will still make or break where this year actually finishes.
If you want to check what’s happening on your own street or in your own neighbourhood, the SPVM’s interactive map is available through the City of Montreal’s website, where you can filter by crime type and date range.
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