Surrey Police Board gets new chief constable; McCallum weighs in on decision

The Surrey Police Board has appointed a new chief constable.

On Friday, the board released a statement that they had appointed Todd Matsumoto, who has been the interim chief constable since June, to assume the role starting Oct. 30.

“This is an exciting day for Surrey Police Service,” said Perm Jawanda, Surrey Police Board Chair. “We are confident Todd Matsumoto is the right leader to guide SPS forward as we continue building a strong, modern and effective police service for the people of Surrey.”

The Surrey Police Board said the appointment followed a national search conducted by an executive search firm.

Matsumoto has over three decades of experience in municipal policing and public safety. 

“It is an honour to continue to serve and lead Surrey Police Service,” said Chief Constable Todd Matsumoto. “Our greatest assets are our people and our relationship with the community we serve. My focus will continue to be transparency, consistent communication and relationship-based leadership.”

In response to the announcement, mayor-elect Doug McCallum released a statement expressing his displeasure with the appointment of a new chief constable. 

McCallum expressed his issue with the announcement coming on the last business day before the new city council takes over on Monday, effectively preventing the new council from making its own choices. 

“Brenda Locke’s handpicked board doing exactly what it was built to do: carry out the mayor’s wishes after the voters have shown the mayor the door,” read part of the statement.

According to McCallum’s statement, there was no public meeting where the chief constable appointment was listed on the agenda. Instead, he said the board decided on Matsumoto’s appointment during a meeting on Oct. 22.

The next meeting of the Surrey Police Board, under the newly elected council, is not until Nov. 18. 

McCallum stated that Cheney Cloke, the board’s former vice-chair and now a councillor-elect, called on the Solicitor General to suspend the hiring until the court rules.

“Brenda Locke spent four years trying to sabotage the Surrey Police Service. In her own sworn affidavit she says she ‘fought tirelessly’ against it. Sworn evidence in court says she told a uniformed officer ‘we need to get rid of Chief Lipinski.’ When the Province took the board away from her, she got it back with her own resumes and her own councillor chairing the meeting that fired him,” said McCallum. 

“Her board picked Surrey’s police chief behind closed doors so the council that replaced her would have no say. That is not civilian oversight. That is one last kick at Surrey on her way out the door.”

Despite McCallum’s objections on how the police board went ahead with the hiring, he stated he would work with Matsumoto, as he has the backing of the police union, but he also called for the dismissal of the whole board due to their alliance with outgoing Mayor Brenda Locke.

“Today I am calling on the Province to remove this entire board, every member of it, and appoint a new, non-partisan board through a public process, immediately,” said McCallum.  “This board was stacked with Brenda Locke’s political cronies. It fired a chief behind its own chair’s back, gagged the chief’s office, left two seats empty for five months, and has now hired a chief behind closed doors three days before the council the voters elected takes office.”