Surrey councillor urges colleagues to move ahead with police transition

A Surrey city councillor is calling on his colleagues to move forward with the transition to the Surrey Police Service (SPS).

Coun. Doug Elford says after reading the redacted provincial report recommending the transition to the municipal police force, there’s no way his fellow councillors can vote to keep the RCMP in good conscience.

“Redacted or unredacted, the statement that really sticks out in my mind is that if we go back to the RCMP, there is a significant risk to public safety for the citizens of Surrey,” he told CityNews on Thursday. “I don’t know how any councillor could support that.”

Last month, B.C. Public Safety Minister and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth revealed details of a third-party analysis which recommended Surrey continue its transition to the SPS. Once the announcement was made, Mayor Brenda Locke remained steadfast in her stance of keeping the RCMP in Surrey.

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• B.C. recommends transition to Surrey Police Service

The councillor, who is a member of the pro-SPS Safe Surrey Coalition, says he can’t elaborate on the details of the report, as he was required to sign a non-disclosure agreement in order to read it.

However, he’s hoping some of his colleagues in council chambers will look it over and make their own decisions, regardless of party affiliation.

“[Locke] only has one vote on council and so I’m hopeful that some people that were originally on her team … I’m hoping that they read the report and it may convince them to vote otherwise,” he said.

“It just makes no sense,” Elford continued. “Particularly when the solicitor heneral states that there’s a significant risk to the public. I don’t know why everybody doesn’t understand this.”

Elford adds that it’s time for the city to move on to other issues, saying the policing transition has taken up too much time and resources.