Surrey police decision far from settled after council votes to retain RCMP

Surrey council has voted to retain the RCMP as the city's police force while bringing a halt to the transition to the municipal Surrey Police Service (SPS), but the move still needs the blessing of the province.

Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke told reporters she could not disclose the estimated costs associated with reverting to the RCMP due to non-disclosure agreements (NDA) councillors had to sign to view an unredacted version of the province's report on the matter.

"It will obviously be millions but we don't know what those millions will look like. Sorry," she said.

Locke incorrectly said that the NDAs prevented her from revealing details of how council voted. The province required NDAs because the report was said to contain sensitive information about the RCMP. 

According to Locke, continuing with the SPS would have had "incredibly significant" impacts.

"This is the better option for the taxpayer," she said.

Council's decision goes against what the province and Solicitor General and Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth had recommended and were willing to fund. Farnworth holds the ultimate responsibility for overseeing policing in B.C.

In April, the province offered Surrey $150 million over five years to help cover the costs of moving to the SPS, but said it would not pay the estimated $72 million in officer severance if council decided to go back to the RCMP.

The transition to the independent SPS began under former mayor Doug McCallum, who was defeated by Locke in last October's municipal election where the policing option was a major election issue.

Farnworth said he was waiting to see if Surrey's plan to bring back the RCMP meets the requirements to protect public safety. According to the Police Act, he has ultimate jurisdiction over policing in B.C., although whether he would choose to use that power remains to be seen.

"This is a two-step process. The City of Surrey gets to choose their police force. My responsibility is the second part: safe and effective policing," he said.

Currently, approximately half of the total authorized police officers working in Surrey are RCMP and the other half SPS. 

Earlier Farnworth said the recommendation to stay with the SPS was a safety issue based largely on the RCMP having 1,500 vacancies across B.C.

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B.C. Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth says his office has not yet seen a report from the City of Surrey explaining its decision to stop transitioning to a municipal police force and stick with the RCMP.

Surrey Police Service Chief Norm Lipinski said he hopes the province will step in after the "problematic" decision by council, while Assistant RCMP Commissioner Brian Edwards said his force is fully prepared to work with all groups involved, including the SPS. 

Edwards said the RCMP has a target of 734 officers for Surrey and is close to that number, with many SPS officers showing interest in joining the RCMP.

Many, including Surrey councillor Linda Annis, have been critical about the lack of transparency around the decision.

According to Annis, council members were given a 400-page report on Wednesday night before the closed-door vote on Thursday afternoon.

"I'm extremely concerned how this whole process went down," she said. "I'm concerned that the province wasn't given the city's report to review beforehand."

Farnworth said he too will have to sign a non-disclosure agreement to view the transition report produced by Surrey staff.

Locke said the city is currently looking at a timeline of when the Surrey RCMP will be returned to full strength, but in the meantime it is expected that the SPS and RCMP will work together with "professionalism'' ensuring service levels remain high.