Surrey mayor won’t comment on police saga until staff analysis
Posted May 2, 2023 12:01 pm.
Last Updated May 2, 2023 12:02 pm.
Surrey’s mayor has asserted that she’s made her final comments on who is policing Surrey until the city’s staff come back with their analysis of the province’s report recommending the transition away from the RCMP continue.
Mayor Brenda Locke made the comments Monday night during a council meeting, adding that the review process will take some time to be completed.
Locke says that once the analysis is done, the report will be brought back to council for “careful consideration.”
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Last Friday, B.C.’s Public Safety Minister and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth handed down his recommendation that the transition to the Surrey Police Service (SPS) should continue.
However, Locke has been forthright in her position to keep the RCMP as the police force of jurisdiction in the city. She ran on that platform in last year’s municipal election, winning with just under 30 per cent of the vote.
Farnworth announced the highly-anticipated recommendation saying it’s “the best way to achieve public safety in B.C.”
“The people of Surrey are very frustrated by years of uncertainty over this debate, but we must move forward without reducing police presence when we need it the most,” Farnworth said Friday.
The decision comes after the province’s director of police services compiled a 500-page report based on plans submitted by the City of Surrey, the Surrey RCMP, and the SPS.
The minister pointed to staffing challenges in the RCMP, where there are currently more than 1,500 vacancies provincewide, as the reasoning behind the recommendation.
“This path forward will ensure safer policing for all regions of the province, including the people of Surrey, and provincial support will help keep them from paying significant property tax increases,” Farnworth said.
–With files from Sonia Aslam and Dean Recksiedler
