B.C. government says Surrey to continue with municipal police force, not RCMP
CTV
The long tug-of-war over policing in B.C.'s second-largest city could be coming to an end after the provincial government mandated that Surrey move forward with a municipal force, rather than revert back to the RCMP.
The long tug-of-war over policing in B.C.'s second-largest city could be coming to an end after the provincial government mandated that Surrey move forward with a municipal force, rather than revert back to the RCMP.
Announcing the decision on Wednesday, Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said Surrey officials had failed to prove they could maintain public safety while reversing the city's transition to the Surrey Police Service.
"People's safety, in Surrey and across the province, is non-negotiable. The city has failed to
meet the requirements I placed to prevent a situation where there are not enough police
officers to keep people safe," Farnworth said in a statement.
Provincial officials expressed concerns that transitioning between police forces again – roughly three years after the SPS was first established, and less than two years after the first officers began patrolling the streets – could trigger a law enforcement crisis in the city and beyond.
The Ministry of Public Safety raised the notion of an "exodus" of SPS officers amid the transition that would leave an inadequate number of boots on the ground. Officials also said Surrey lacked plans to re-staff the Surrey RCMP without pulling officers from other communities that are already facing their own staffing problems.
