Surrey mayor alleges 'political mischief' over allegations municipal police deployment blocked

Accusations that the Surrey RCMP is blocking the deployment of municipal police officers have become the latest political football in the city as the province gears up to decide the city's policing future at the end of the week.

The latest drama surrounding the transition from the RCMP to the Surrey Police Service, and whether it is stalled, come after a letter from the municipal police force to council dated April 18.

In it, the SPS alleges that the RCMP "unilaterally" refused to deploy 33 trained officers in March and would only accept 14 new recruits, contradicting a previously-agreed-upon human resources plan.

Proponents of the transition to a municipal police force opposed by Mayor Brenda Locke — whose defining issue is keeping the Surrey RCMP — have seized on the letter and said the city is "actively preventing" officers from deployment amid concerns over public safety.

However, Locke says the letter is an attempt to "undermine" Solicitor General Mike Farnworth, whose decision on whether to halt the police transition is expected by the end of April.

"It's not factual, and I think it was deliberately intended to be volatile," Locke told reporters Monday. "They [Surrey Police Service] were told when we were first elected to stop hiring. They were told again later in early spring by the solicitor general's department to stop hiring.

"Yet they didn't. So if they have hired beyond what is the plan that they agreed to, that's on them."

CBC News has been unable to confirm whether the solicitor general's department asked for the SPS to stop hiring new officers. Farnworth did ask for more information from the city, the RCMP and the SPS before making a final decision.

Locke accused councillors Doug Elford and Mandeep Nagra, who sit with the Safe Surrey Coalition and are in favour of the transition to the Surrey Police Service, of creating "political mischief" by running with the issue over the last week.

In a statement, the councillors had said the city was creating a "double standard" by requesting more police resources while allegedly preventing the deployment of new officers.

"We're looking at political games being played here. And as far as we're concerned, we need boots on the ground," Elford told CBC News. "In light of the rash of issues that have happened in the region lately, I think it's necessary."

The statement from the opposition councillors said that the city faced an increase in violent crime and that more SPS officers could prevent future incidents.

SPS and RCMP issue responses

For its part, the SPS says the letter was not meant to be political in nature.

The service's spokesperson, Ian McDonald, said that under the HR plan, regular deployments from the service were set to occur every two months but had slowed recently.

"For whatever reason, the onboarding by the RCMP has slowed," he said. "We have 33 more [officers] that could be deployed as soon as tomorrow, but we need the Surrey RCMP to give the OK to that.

"We're certainly hoping that the provincial decision will resume this process [of deployment] because the HR agreement only runs until the end of May."

RCMP Assistant Commissioner Brian Edwards said in a statement that the force was "currently fully staffed" and approximately 186 SPS officers were currently deployed. He added that future staffing plans will be determined only after Farnworth's decision.

Edwards also disputed allegations violent crime had gone up in the city and said that it was down 14 per cent compared to the same period in 2022.

"Claims to the contrary [are] a blatant attempt to generate public fear, and disrespectful to all those impacted by the incidents, the judicial processes underway, and all officers working in Surrey," the statement read.

The political back-and-forth marks the final shots from both sides of the Surrey policing debate ahead of the provincial decision expected by the end of the month.

"Minister Farnworth committed to making a decision by the end of April," read a statement from the public safety ministry. "The stability of policing is a provincial responsibility, and public safety in the City of Surrey and throughout British Columbia continues to be government's core driving principle."