Surrey council takes next steps in scrapping municipal force in favour of RCMP
Surrey’s new mayor and council have taken the next step in their plan to scrap the Surrey Police Service and maintain the RCMP as the city’s police force.
Assistant Commissioner Brian Edwards, commanding officer of the Surrey RCMP, appeared at Monday night’s council meeting to lay out the plan for keeping the national force.
"My job is to lead policing for this city, it is the job of others to decide who polices the city,” Edwards said as he made a presentation that council would ultimately vote to accept.
He also presented a chart purporting to show crime in the city trending down over the last decade.
“Certainly we know, by looking at the crime stats that were provided to us last night, we know that Surrey is doing very well on the crime stats,” said Mayor Brenda Locke at a Tuesday morning news conference.
The Surrey Police Union – which represents officers hired by the municipal Surrey Police Service – has a very different take on where things stand when it comes to crime in the city.
“What is important is the crime index. And right now, Surrey is the most dangerous community in Canada,” said Const. Ryan Buhrig, the union’s spokesperson.
“And I think that just shows the work that needs to be done and the work that Surrey Police Service is ready for.”
The union put out a news release Monday morning claiming the city is not being policed with acceptable numbers of officers in the community.
It claims that of 14 shifts over the last week, 50 per cent of them failed to meet the RCMP’s own requirements for minimum staffing levels.
In his own statement sent later in the day, the RCMP’s Edwards fired back, saying the information provided by the union was not accurate.
“It is not common practice for police to release exact breakdowns of operational resources on any given shift. What I can say is that the statistics and numbers provided by the SPU are inaccurate, and in my view, are deliberately intended to mislead the public,” Edwards said. “I call on the Surrey Police Service Executive to expend all efforts to discontinue this harmful rhetoric from the Surrey Police Union.”
At the council meeting, Edwards said the RCMP needs to hire more than 160 new officers to work in Surrey.
That could be a challenge, given that policing in the city appears to be a political football, subject to the whims of a new mayor and council every four years.
“I think it is something that we have to talk to the solicitor general about,” said Locke. “The process in changing your police department has to be much more rigid than it was in the beginning.”
The city expects to have a report on the process of retaining the RCMP on Solicitor General Mike Farnworth’s desk by mid-December.
In the meantime, Locke said she has asked the SPS to curtail its spending, but the force has refused.
“It is obvious that the City of Surrey has absolutely no control over what the Surrey Police Service does,” she said.
That remarkable admission by the city’s mayor – and the chair of its police board – is another sign of just how sour the relationship has become.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Most of Canada to receive emergency alert test today
The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today, with the exception of Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15.
'A huge difference': These adults born in the '90s partnered with their parents to buy homes in Ontario
An Ontario woman said it would have been impossible to buy a house without her mother – an anecdote that animates the fact that over 17 per cent of Canadian homeowners born in the ‘90s own their property with their parents, according to a new report.
OPINION No reunion between Prince Harry and the King signifies a setback for royal unity
Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, has made headlines with his recent arrival in the U.K., this time to celebrate all things Invictus. But upon the prince landing in the U.K., we have already had confirmation that King Charles III won't have time to see his youngest son during his brief visit.
Northern Ont. woman makes 'eggstraordinary' find
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
How Drake and Kendrick Lamar's rap beef escalated within weeks
A long-simmering feud between hip-hop superstars Drake and Kendrick Lamar reached a boiling point in recent days as the pair traded increasingly personal insults on a succession of diss tracks. Here’s a quick overview of what’s behind the ongoing beef.
NEW For their protection, immigrants critical of China and India call for speedy passage of Canada's foreign interference legislation
Canadian immigrants threatened by hostile regimes are urging parliamentarians to quickly pass the 'Countering Foreign Interference Act' so they can feel safe living in their adopted home.
Ontario man devastated to learn $150,000 line of credit isn't insured after wife dies
An Ontario man found out that a line of credit he thought was insured actually isn't after his wife of 50 years died.
Spanish prosecutors recommend 2nd investigation into Shakira's taxes be thrown out
Spanish state prosecutors recommended Wednesday that an investigating judge shelve a probe into another alleged case of tax fraud by pop star Shakira.
Stormy Daniels describes meeting Trump during occasionally graphic testimony in hush money trial
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.