Surrey Police Union rejects optimistic image of RCMP policing

tomtidgewellNovember 30, 2022

BC Government has final say to stop transition to Surrey Police

Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke has decided to keep the RCMP in Surrey. Photo by Arlen Redekop /PNG files

Surrey’s new mayor is pushing ahead with plans to halt the transition to a city police force, but the Surrey Police Union on Tuesday rejected the RCMP’s optimistic outlook on declining staffing and crime statistics.

Brenda Locke says she plans to stick to the RCMP ready for Public Safety Minister and Attorney General Mike Farnworth by mid-December. This plan includes the cost of discontinuing the migration rather than staying with the Mounties.

Initially, Rock said the plans would be ready by the end of November.

“(Farnworth) will have the report and the numbers by the 15th,” Locke said. I will keep you posted on our progress on this matter.”

The BC government has the final say in halting the transition to the well-ongoing Surrey Police Service (SPS), which has spent more than $108 million and employs about 350 police officers and civilians. I’m here.

Rock’s comments at Tuesday morning’s press conference were, the union challenged the favorable situation The city’s RCMP pictured at Monday’s city council meeting.

At a meeting Monday night, it was revealed that the city and the RCMP had formed a “joint project team” to oversee the final plans for maintaining the mounties. The team includes senior city leaders and his RCMP consultants Peter German and Tonia Enger. RCMP officer.

RCMP Deputy Chairman Brian Edwards, who is in charge of the Surrey RCMP, said crime statistics were declining and the RCMP team was tailored to the city’s needs, including gang control and mobile street enforcement. I said yes. Edwards said that in order to man the 734 officers, the cavalry would need to add 160 more officers, but he saw no problem in doing so.

But on Tuesday morning, unions claimed the presentation had left out key information, some shifts were below RCMP staffing standards, and there was one officer patrolling South Surrey and Cloverdale at night. The union also said its operations center in charge of 911 was understaffed, and why crime statistics are declining is due to phone calls. He claims that the number of times he receives is decreasing.

Neither the SPS nor the union were asked to provide any information at Monday’s council meeting.

SPU Chairman Rick Stewart said: “SPU is making this information public so that elected officials and Surrey residents have an accurate picture of reality on the city’s streets before major decisions are made. because it is important to

At a press conference on Tuesday, Rock said the union is trying to create its own story.

“I’m not worried at all,” she said.

Unions said they were very concerned about the health and safety of both RCMP and SPS staff under Canadian labor law, and about staffing to the point that they had filed a complaint with WorkSafeBC. Both complaints were dismissed due to jurisdictional issues.

In a statement released Tuesday afternoon, the Surrey RCMP said the statistics and figures provided by the union were inaccurate and willfully misleading. But there are also plainclothes agents, gang patrols, traffic cops, and serious crime investigators that can be summoned.

“I urge the Surrey police officers to do everything in their power to put an end to this harmful rhetoric by the Surrey Police Union,” Edwards said.

The current process highlights that transition discussions continue without an independent cost-benefit analysis. Reports submitted to the BC government will include figures compiled by Surrey officials. When Richmond and Red Deer, Alberta considered switching from her RCMP to municipality over the past decade, the municipality hired an outside consultant to provide the analysis.

Mr Farnworth has already said that Surrey must fully explain the proposal to stop the transition, the costs and how the more than 300 police officers who signed in good faith will be treated.

He said the RCMP should also provide plans on how to recruit police officers to Surrey. He also said that if the transition to city police is canceled, the city will cover all costs, including severance pay, which is estimated at $80 million.

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Read the full statement from Assistant Commissioner Brian Edwards, officer in charge of the Surrey RCMP.

At the Surrey City Council meeting last night, I presented a framework for maintaining the RCMP as a jurisdictional police force, which was approved by the City Council. A joint project team will oversee the development of a final plan for congressional approval on December 12, 2022. We await and respect decisions made by Congress and the state regarding policing transitions.

This was my first opportunity to address the Mayor and City Council since assuming the role of Director of the Surrey RCMP over three years ago. My number one priority has always been public safety and ensuring that all officers under my command, both RCMP and SPS, are able to return home safely at the end of their shift. Obligation.

With the full respect that my job is to lead the police in Surrey and not contribute to a divisive dialogue that does nothing for public safety or the community, I am very critical in my public comment on the transition. was careful about

As I said last night, unfortunately, there are those who go to great lengths to terrorize and publicly misrepresent information at the expense of the safety of both the public and police. Today’s release by the Surrey Police Union was endorsed by Doug McCallum at the time.

It is not common for police to publish an exact breakdown of operational resources on a particular shift. All I can say is that the statistics and figures provided by SPU are inaccurate and, in my opinion, intentionally intended to mislead the public. I urge Surrey Police Service officers to make every effort to put an end to this harmful rhetoric by the Surrey Police Union.

Surrey Detachment has funded 734 positions and is currently exceeding its goal. On any given shift, in addition to frontline resources, a team of plainclothes investigative units, uniformed gangsters and bicycle/foot patrols, traffic cops, uniformed local police officers, and a team of serious criminal investigators called upon in an emergency there is. Big incident. It also receives significant operational support from the Lower Mainland Integration Team for forensics, police dogs, air services, murder investigations and emergency response.

Our Duty Officers use the teams above to manage our resources 24/7. The ability to scale resources quickly is critical to maintaining an effective and efficient police service through many challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, and our facilities have not increased since 2018. Hmm.

As for the Operational Communications Center (OCC), like many agencies in British Columbia and Canada, we are suffering from a shortage of call takers and dispatchers. Our OCC staff are City of Surrey employees and are working closely with the City to mitigate the impact of these staff shortages and will be hiring more soon. 911 calls were not affected, and for non-emergency calls, these were either prioritized or transferred to Constable in the radio room. Alternatively, you can use our online reporting tool if you prefer.

As I said last night, I have complete confidence in our policing model. It has been proven effective and efficient in reducing crime over the last decade.