All eyes on Surrey as fate of municipal police heads to new council
Surrey’s new mayor is getting her chance Monday night to prepare a plan to press pause on the controversial transition to a municipal force.
Mayor Brenda Locke campaigned on the promise to keep the RCMP in Surrey, and this will be her first council meeting since being elected in October, beating out former mayor Doug McCallum with 28% of the vote to his 27%.
Locke’s party, Surrey Connect, has a majority on the Council, meaning unless some surprises occur, many can already guess the outcome will not be in favour of keeping the status quo.
However, there are two options on the table and how — and when — they will be brought into force is still unclear.
The first option maintains the RCMP as Police of Jurisdiction, and directs staff to prepare a
plan to be endorsed by Council which would be forwarded to the minister of public
safety and solicitor general for approval. This option would further direct staff to issue a letter on behalf of Council to the Surrey Police Board to pause all new hiring and expenditures pending further Council direction.
The second option is to continue the transition to the Surrey Police Service.
What’s not in the report? A referendum — which is what Surrey First Councillor Linda Annis wants to see.
“The fact is 72% of the people who voted in the municipal election did not vote for Brenda Locke, so any suggestion that there is some sort of overwhelming mandate is ridiculous. Only a referendum that gives the people of Surrey their say will give the final decision on policing any legitimacy,” Annis said Monday in her letter to BC’s Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth.
The report was prepared by staff and Council is set to consider it at 7 pm Monday.
It is critical that Surrey City Council has the full picture of the policing transition. The report submitted to Council inaccurately reflects SPS’s current staffing & omits significant financial implications for council’s consideration. Read the release: https://t.co/5eItWFHP3u
— Surrey Police Service (@surreyps) November 14, 2022
Ahead of the meeting, the Surrey Police Service tweeted a statement, expressing concern over the vote and questioning the accuracy of the report.
“The report inaccurately reflects SPS’s current staffing, citing only the 154 deployed SPS officers, which the reports notes is 21% of the ‘targeted strength of 734 police officers.’ However, SPS has a total of 315 police officers, which represents 43% of the targeted strength,” the statement reads in part.
“The additional 161 officers are waiting for deployment (35 at the end of November) and/or working in administrative roles that are required for either the normal functioning of any police agency, or to develop the infrastructure for a new police service,” the service added.
The report does not mention a financial cost to keep the Surrey RCMP, but the service suggests that loss would be close to $188.5 million.
The Surrey Police Union has said that the majority of its officers would not be interested in joining the RCMP if the transition is reversed, due to a “toxic” culture.
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