Surrey Police Service submits reports in bid to convince province to continue transition from RCMP

The Surrey Police Service has submitted two reports that it hopes willconvince the province to stick to the city's policing transition away from the RCMP.

B.C.Solicitor General Mike Farnworth will decide the fate of the SPS in early 2023 after Surrey's recently-elected mayor and council voted to keep the RCMP.

Since the province has the final say, the SPS submitted a pair of reports to decision-makerson Thursdaydetailing how far alongthe transition is, and its rationale for carrying on with it.

"It's way too far down the road to reverse," said SPS Chief Norm Lipinski.

Among the two reports is the publicly availableSurrey Police Service: The Future of Public Safety in Surrey,which claims it's in the best interest of the community to continue on the current path.

It notes that the SPS has already hired 375 employees, many of whom have moved their families to the community from other parts of Canada.Officers are already in the fieldand firing them would mean dissolving two unions that have already been formed, which would likely be costly and sparkgrievances, it adds.

In all, $107 million has been spent on the SPS, and dissolution would cost anestimated $81 million in severances, the report says.

It also points out the SPS has had no issues recruiting, with more officers due to entertraining programs in January. It claims it's had 2,500 applications, while noting the RCMP has trouble recruiting new officers.

"It would be a net gain for policing in B.C.," said Lipinski, noting that RCMP officers who don't join the service can be deployed to other parts of the country.

"We're one of the few major cities in Canada that has no problems recruiting," he said.

The second report submitted to the province, titledSurrey Police Service Policing Transition Progress Report,has not been made public because it contains detailed operational and personnel information, the SPS says.

Community divided

The policing debate has been ongoing for years, with the municipal police force transition sparked by the city's previous mayor Doug McCallum.

He was defeated in the Octoner electionsby current Brenda Locke, who campaigned on ending the transition and keeping the RCMP in Surrey.

She argued that the transition isn't past the point of no return, asmore than 75 per cent of on-duty officers in Surrey are still with the RCMP, and the RCMP still retaincommand of forcesand control of infrastructure.

But some community leaders have suggested a referendum to ensure that Surrey residents are actually in favour of this. While Locke campaigned heavily on her promise to keep the RCMP in Surrey, she was elected with just 28 per cent of the vote.

Surrey is the largest city in Canada that continues to be under RCMP jurisdiction, with every other major city in the country outside B.C. under local police control or part of a regional or provincial police service.

The SPS says it could achieve the requirements to become the police of jurisdiction for Surrey in 2023, with thefull transition complete the following year.