Less than three weeks to go before the Surrey Police Service (SPS) takes over from the Surrey RCMP, there is still a lack of clarity about how the transition will be completed.
An agreement on how responsibilities will be divided has yet to be finalized, despite the SPS officially taking over on Nov. 29.
President of the National Police Federation Brian Sauvé says its members are anxious. Given each department has its own policies and procedures, he explains officers are also worried about the future.
“So, what does November 30th look like? I think the City of Surrey is going to be safe. The membership of the RCMP will do their job. How that looks, and the nitty-gritty of what that looks [like], obviously I’m very, very curious to see the details,” Sauvé said. “It has been underwhelming with respect to how much has been relayed to us.”
SPS Chief Norm Lipinski says he expects a deal to be hammered out in the coming days.
“We will start with geography of certain areas and they will start with their geography,” said Lipinski. “Then what happens is, as we build up and they scale down, we take over more of their geography. We’ve got a plan for that. It makes total sense.”
Mounties are expecting to take on a support role as the municipal service grows in numbers in the years ahead.
How did we get here? A look at the SPS take-over timeline
The lack of details around the transition plan may be surprising considering the idea of moving away from the RCMP was first floated in Oct. 2018. That’s when former Surrey mayor Doug McCallum proposed the idea to get rid of the Mounties. However, current Mayor Brenda Locke swept into office in Oct. 2022 and a big part of her winning platform was to keep the RCMP as the police force of jurisdiction.
In Nov. 2022, Surrey City Council voted 5-4 to scrap the idea and keep the RCMP.
By the New Year, the province was involved, while the SPS continued to hire staff and lure officers away from other local departments.
In April 2023, the B.C. government stepped in and recommended Surrey stay on track with the transition to a municipal force and figure out financial support to help ease the hit on Surrey taxpayers. The recommendation wasn’t binding, so Surrey continued with its plan to keep the RCMP.
In June 2023, Attorney General Mike Farnworth sent a letter to Locke and council to make a final decision. Locke responded by saying the city would not be “bullied” into making a decision.
The city was ordered to continue with the transition but council voted, again, to scrap it.
Last October, the city launched a court challenge to stop the transition. A few days later, Farnworth amended the B.C. Police Act so the SPS can be put in charge. Then Premier David Eby weighed in, saying the city’s legal challenge “will not be successful,” and the topic was no longer up for discussion.
In Nov. 2023, Farnworth suspended the entire Surrey Police Board and removed Locke as chair, mandating the transition to be completed.
–With files from The Canadian Press.