Surrey police transition deal still in works, less than three weeks before handover

The exterior of police stations will soon look different in Surrey, B.C.

New signs have been ordered to reflect a transfer of policing responsibility to the municipal Surrey Police Service from the RCMP, after six years of planning and political turmoil.

On Nov. 29, the municipal service becomes the police force of jurisdiction in British Columbia’s second most populous municipality, while the Mounties take on what’s expected to be a years-long supporting role.

But there’s still no formal agreement on how responsibilities will be split between the two forces with less than three weeks to go before the transition becomes official.

Surrey Police Chief Norm Lipinski said Friday that meetings between his office and the RCMP happen multiple times a week as they work out the finer points of the deal, which he is confident will be signed “in a matter of days.”

“We’re putting those pieces together to get us to a place where public safety is not going to be compromised in Surrey, I’m very, very confident about that. It will not be compromised. There’s enough overlap, there’s enough people, there’s enough equipment,” he said.

The head of the RCMP’s union said its officers are committed to public safety in Surrey, but members are anxious about being so close to the handover without a clear understanding of what their jobs will look like.

Brian Sauvé, president of the National Police Federation, said RCMP members haven’t been told what’s going to happen after the transition and since each police service has its own policies and procedures there could be challenges.

“I think, generally speaking, (people are feeling) anxious, uncertain, concerned, knot in stomach, if you will. Mainly because nobody knows what’s happening,” he said.

Lipinski would not go into specifics about the agreement that is being worked on, but said the two forces are essentially dividing up Surrey geographically with the RCMP responsible for some areas and the Surrey Police Service in charge of others.

“We will start with geography and certain areas, and they will start with their geography. 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,” he said.

Lipinski said the Surrey Police Service has 455 members and will need 785 to take over from the RCMP completely. He said he expects it to take another two to three years to get the force up to full strength.

While policing in Surrey has been managed by the RCMP, Surrey Police Service officers have been working alongside them since 2021 while a dispute over the transition played out in municipal and provincial politics.

In November 2018, after winning his third term as mayor of Surrey, Doug McCallum put forward a motion at his first council meeting to create a municipal police force in the community of nearly 600,000 people 35 kilometres southeast of Vancouver.

By 2021 the first officers had been deployed. But the next year Brenda Locke defeated McCallum to become the new mayor, promising to reverse the transition and putting her on a collision course with Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth, who continued to support the power transfer.

The dispute was often heated, with Farnworth accusing the city of playing games and Locke accusing the minister of bullying and misogyny.

Locke declined a request to be interviewed for this story.

In the end, Farnworth used his authority to force the city to move forward with the Surrey Police Service, and the municipality lost a bid to have the decision reversed by the B.C. Supreme Court.

Sauvé said that legally the Mounties can’t work under a municipal police force, a situation commonly referred to as “red under blue,” which is why having an agreement on responsibilities is so important.

He said there would be “no shame” in the Nov. 29 deadline being pushed back to give both sides more time.

“What does Nov. 30 look like? I think the City of Surrey is going to be safe. The membership of the RCMP will do their job,” he said.

“How that looks, and the nitty gritty of what that looks like, obviously, I’m very, very curious to see the details. And it has been underwhelming with respect to how much has been relayed to us,” he said.

Lipinski said he is confident things will be ready for Nov. 29.

He said “there’s nothing super onerous about having two chains of command” and while there may be “unforeseen circumstances” he’s optimistic the two sides will be able to work through them.

“There will not be any public safety risk, and there will be business continuity as we move forward and as we evolve. And, of course, there will be things that you have to do thereafter because you didn’t have the time to do it before,” he said.

“It’s like building a house, and sometimes you move in and you have to do some of the other elements, such as painting and so forth and so on. But it’s there. The structure is there and we’re ready to go.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 11, 2024.

Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press