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
Canadian gov't proposes new foreign influence registry as part of wide-spanning new bill
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government is proposing a suite of new measures and law changes aimed at countering foreign interference in Canada, amid extensive scrutiny over past meddling attempts and an ever-evolving threat landscape.
Boeing Starliner capsule's first crewed test flight postponed
The long-awaited first crewed test flight of Boeing's new Starliner space capsule was called off for at least 24 hours over a technical issue that launch teams were unable to resolve in time for the planned Monday night lift-off.
Teacher charged in historical sexual assault of Calgary teenage girl
Calgary police have charged a teacher with the alleged sexual assault of a teenage girl more than 20 years ago.
Winnipeg man admits to killing four women, argues he's not criminally responsible
Defence lawyers of Jeremy Skibicki have admitted in court the accused killed four Indigenous women, but argues he is not criminally responsible for the deaths by way of mental disorder – this latest development has triggered a judge-alone trial rather than a jury trial.
Man banned from owning animals after fatal Calgary dog attack
The owner of three Calgary dogs that got loose and mauled a woman to death in 2022 has been ordered to pay a $15,000 fine within one year and banned from owning any animal for 15 years.
East-end Ottawa family dealing with massive rat infestation
Residents in Ottawa’s Elmridge Gardens complex are dealing with a rat infestation that just won’t go away. Now, after doing everything they can to try to fix the issue, they are pleading with the city to step in and help.
Mediterranean staple may lower your risk of death from dementia, study finds
A daily spoonful of olive oil could lower your risk of dying from dementia, according to a new study by Harvard scientists.
An El Nino-less summer is coming. Here's what that could mean for Canada
As Canadians brace themselves for summer temperatures, forecasters say a weakening El Nino cycle doesn’t mean relief from the heat.
Newfoundland and Labrador latest province to tighten rules on Airbnbs
Newfoundland and Labrador is the latest jurisdiction to bring in stricter rules for short-term rentals, with a coming set of regulations that will force operators to register with the provincial government.