SPS report ‘crossed an absolute line’: Surrey RCMP assistant commissioner

The Surrey RCMP isn’t holding back after the Surrey Police Service (SPS) submitted a report to the province, outlining why it is the best choice to serve the city.

Assistant Commissioner Brian Edwards says the SPS “crossed an absolute line” when it questioned the adequacy and effectiveness of the Surrey RCMP’s policing in its report.

“I feel that Surrey Police Service seeks to discredit the efforts of the RCMP in Surrey and for the purposes of creating a lack of confidence,” Edwards says.

Surrey has been caught up in a policing controversy ever since former Mayor Doug McCallum got the process moving to drop the RCMP for a municipal force. The controversy has continued, with now-Mayor Brenda Locke working to stop that transition. 

In a statement posted Friday, Edwards addressed some of the comments made in the report by the SPS, including those around policing and recruitment.

“Adequate and effective policing is being provided. Crime has been on a 10-year trend down, it continues in the third quarter of 2022. So the facts absolutely support that policing is being provided at excellent service level within Surrey. And so efforts to have people think otherwise are absolutely inappropriate,” Edwards told CityNews.

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The SPS report also said it is the “only major police service in Canada that is not challenged in hiring experienced police officers or new recruits.” It noted the SPS had 2,500 applications and claimed the RCMP has been experiencing challenges on this front.

However, Edwards says the SPS’ statistics were “cherry-picked from COVID statistics,” when the RCMP and other agencies across the country were struggling with recruitment. 

Edwards also refutes the SPS’ claims that 94 per cent of its members were unwilling to join the RCMP if the province chose to keep the Mounties as Surrey’s police force.

“Multiple officers have approached us in confidence and indicated that they will come over to the Surrey RCMP or the greater RCMP should the decision to retain the RCMP be made,” Edwards said.

Publicly criticizing the RCMP, Edwards says, takes away from focusing on public safety. 

“My job is to keep the city safe. The RCMP remains in command and control of all operations and I need both RCMP and SPS officers to continue to focus on that. Others will decide who polices the city — not myself nor Norm Lipinski. So I want the focus to be on that, not on this ongoing debate.”

According to Edwards, he’s reached out to SPS Chief Constable Norm Lipinski to address his complaints about the report and hopes to connect with him soon. 

The province ultimately decides which police force has jurisdiction over the city and should it choose to continue transitioning to the SPS, Edwards says he’ll respect that decision.

“Should the decision be the SPS goes ahead, we’ll continue to support that. Should the decision that the RCMP remains, obviously, we’re keen to remain in Surrey and I will affect those changes immediately upon receiving that notification.”

Edwards says the RCMP has submitted its reports and will focus on maintaining public safety and keeping everyone in the force focused.

With files from Hana Mae Nassar