Surrey Police Service takes over command from RCMP

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As the new municipal force took over command Friday in Surrey from the RCMP, Mayor Brenda Locke promised to work with the Surrey Police Service to make it the best in Canada.

Locke and her majority council had fought a long, bitter battle to keep the RCMP.

Speaking at a news conference to mark the change of command, Locke said now there are no more sides, and efforts need to be focused on building a diverse, modern, responsive and principled force.

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“We must be united in our efforts, and we wish you well, and will have your back every step of the way,” Locke told officers of the city’s new force.

She also thanked the RCMP for its service in the city since 1951.

The takeover of command, which officially took place just after midnight on Friday, is a key milestone in the transition, which is not expected to be complete until 2026 or 2027.

The decision to move to a municipal force to replace the RCMP in B.C.’s second-most-populous city was made in 2018 under then-mayor Doug McCallum and approved by the province.

A 2019 transition plan said Surrey was the largest city in Canada without its own municipal force. It said a city force would bring oversight to the local level instead of Ottawa and be more responsive to changing conditions and demands, and more representative of the community.

But in the fall of 2022, Locke defeated McCallum and her party took control of Surrey city council with a mandate to halt the transition, largely over concerns over significantly higher costs.

The 18-month battle to stop the transition only ended in July when Locke and her council agreed to a $250-million deal with the province to assist with the costs of the transition. That was after Locke and her council lost a B.C. Supreme Court attempt to block the transition.

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With Thursday’s command takeover by the SPS, called becoming “the police of jurisdiction,” one expert said he believes the continuing transition will continue more smoothly now.

Curt Griffiths, a Simon Fraser University criminology professor who has worked on reports on the transition, said the creation of the new municipal force was always going to be difficult.

He said to his knowledge there has been no similar undertaking in Canada or internationally, as other police force changes have involved the amalgamation of existing forces, not the creation of a new, large force from scratch.

Griffiths said he believes there will now be a ramp up in recruitment.

He also said he thinks the structure of the transition — with SPS patrol officers now looking after the Whalley and Newton districts and RCMP officers the other three city districts — makes sense. The next policing district the SPS will take over, in 2025, is South Surrey.

He did not think the continuing transition will be an issue for most Surrey residents.

“I think most people don’t really notice what uniform it is, as long as the officers practice what we call procedural justice policing. They listen. They try to problem solve. They’re polite and respond in a timely fashion,” said Griffiths.

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At the Friday news conference, SPS Chief Constable Norm Lipinski called the command takeover a new era for policing in the city, adding staff had worked hard to build a new, modern police service.

“You have pushed through challenges, broken new ground, and used your experiences and expertise to build a police service that challenges the status quo,” Lipinski told his officers.

Also sharing the stage with Lipinski and Locke was RCMP assistant commissioner John Brewer, B.C. Public Safety Minister Garry Begg and Semiahmoo First Nation Chief Harley Chappell.

Begg said it was not only a historic day for Surrey but for communities across Canada.

On Friday, McCallum, the former mayor, celebrated the command takeover.

“This is not just about policing; it’s about building a safer, stronger city,” he said.

As the SPS adds more officers in the next two to three years, the RCMP will reduce its numbers.

So far, the SPS has hired 446 officers, nearly 60 per cent of the 785 officers it needs. Of those, about 270 SPS officers are working on the streets, with the other half of the patrol work being done by the RCMP. The other SPS officers are overseeing operations, recruiting and training officers, and working on the logistics of the transition.

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The RCMP in Surrey will now be headed by a provincial operations support unit under Chief Superintendent Wendy Mehat. Previously the Surrey detachment, the largest in Canada, was headed by an assistant commissioner.

Hamish Telford, a political scientist at the University of the Fraser Valley, said he also does not think the length of the transition or which force is policing which district will be a significant concern to most people.

“When you call the cops, does someone come quickly? Are the streets being police effectively? If yes, then I don’t think most people will notice,” said Telford, who has been following the long-running transition closely.

He noted Premier David Eby’s appointment of Begg, a former Mountie who finished his career in Surrey, may also help assuage any concerns in the community about the transition.

The province’s financial package for Surrey includes $30 million a year until 2029 to assist with the transition. It also includes as much as $20 million a year between 2029 and 2034 if Surrey Police Service costs are higher than the city would have paid to the RCMP.

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A cost analysis produced by accounting firm Deloitte for the province showed that if both forces had 734 officers, the SPS would cost $30 million more a year than the RCMP, about a 15 per cent cost increase. But RCMP salaries have increased since then, and are about the same as at the SPS.

Locke has repeatedly pointed to a difference of $75 million from the Deloitte report, but that compared an SPS force of 900 officers to an RCMP force of 734 officers, not an apples-to-apples comparison.

ghoekstra@postmedia.com

twitter.com/gordon_hoekstra

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