Surrey Switch to Municipal Police Force

[Treblehook]

Most recent news reports seem to suggest that Surrey's new mayor is discovering that his campaign commitment to dump the RCMP in favor of a city police force, is not quite as simple a task as he imagined. I'm not suggesting [one way or the other] that the consequences of such a switch would be positive or negative. One must wonder what the new mayor's motivation has been over the years with his desire to get rid of the RCMP in favor of a municipal force. His references to the level of violence and gang activity in his community, and suggestion that the RCMP has been ineffective in dealing with the growth of that problem is interesting. Obviously, he has some notion of an alternate policing approach that he believes would be more effective [and do-able] if they had a municipal force. I wonder if he has met with and presented his approach to the Officer in Charge of Surrey Detachment? One thing is quite certain.. that being the RCMP should be taking a serious look at any internal issues that are inhibiting their operations at Surrey... that would include ongoing vacancies and the actual allocation of existing resources, etc. When response to calls for service is consuming all of the available resources, it is difficult [if not impossible] to do anything pro-active or meaningfully in terms of prevention. Maybe the City of Surrey should devise an officer exchange program where they could engage the services of a few experienced and respected police personnel from other municipal forces [that have had some success in this area] to act as operational and administrative consultants at Surrey Detachment Such an approach might well enlighten both the city fathers and the RCMP management. The Mayor's initiative to get rid of the RCMP will be interesting to watch in the months ahead.

[dontrump]

I think the switch is for better control and sheer economics ;; The RCMP set the standards and costs per police officer
and there extreme; then look at all the cops that are off on phoney stress/sick leave;; In the RCMP those costs are born nationally and not per town; The moving costs that the RCMP incur per member are also extreme;; then you have a totally
absurd system when it comes to discipline for bad apple members ;; excessive equipment costs etc etc
Hiring and training and out fitting and controlling a private force makes big sense to me

[the truth]

if soooooooooooooooo many parents in surrey over the last almost 20 years not look the other way when there kids became wannabe gangsters and still do , surrey would not have this out of control problem now,the rcmp is not the problem the parents of these little goof gangsters are , they chose to look the other way, and that's what they get, its sad for the many that are just hard working families that have nothing to do with this lifestyle

[Treblehook]

I think the switch is for better control and sheer economics ;; The RCMP set the standards and costs per police officer
and there extreme; then look at all the cops that are off on phoney stress/sick leave;; In the RCMP those costs are born nationally and not per town; The moving costs that the RCMP incur per member are also extreme;; then you have a totally
absurd system when it comes to discipline for bad apple members ;; excessive equipment costs etc etc
Hiring and training and out fitting and controlling a private force makes big sense to me

You best do a little research on the topic. The RCMP contracts for municipal policing are much less expensive for communities than having an independent municipal force. That is a well known and established fact. Having said that, you have a point when you refer to vacancy rates, but not all of those vacancies are due to [as you put it] phoney stress/sick leave. Vacancies occur because of legitimate maternity/paternity leave; secondments, duty related physical injuries, attrition through retirements and a few other reasons. A messed up discipline system plagues the RCMP as well. Excessive equipment costs??? Where is the evidence that the City of Surrey has been burdened with excessive equipment costs? You better believe that a unionized, municipal police force will accept nothing less than top quality, state of the art equipment. To think otherwise is totally naive.

[bob vernon]

A police force tries to cope with, not cause, the social decay that is in Surrey. Surrey is a materialistic urban sprawl hell without even a city centre. Just a terrible place. Full of second generation Asian males used to being pampered in their culture and suddenly being forced into the North American culture. Instead of putting in an effort to succeed without being pampered, they resort to taking the easy way to get the big car. Gangsterism pays for a few years but eventually somebody else tries to take it from you. So it becomes kill or be killed.

Bring back the lash. Changing the name on the door of the police car was just a good election campaign ploy. It won't make any difference and might cost more.

[twobits]

Sorry but it is all about local accountability. I would rather pay 25% more in policing costs and be able to have the "Police Chief" serve at the Mayor's discretion rather than Ottawa policy interpreted by some local commander salting his/her own social justice opinions into the mix to justify policing objectives.

[FreeRights]

A police force tries to cope with, not cause, the social decay that is in Surrey. Surrey is a materialistic urban sprawl hell without even a city centre. Just a terrible place. Full of second generation Asian males used to being pampered in their culture and suddenly being forced into the North American culture. Instead of putting in an effort to succeed without being pampered, they resort to taking the easy way to get the big car. Gangsterism pays for a few years but eventually somebody else tries to take it from you. So it becomes kill or be killed.

Bring back the lash. Changing the name on the door of the police car was just a good election campaign ploy. It won't make any difference and might cost more.

Unfortunately, if you think that the lash is the solution to Surrey's significant (lesser) gang issues, you're absolutely mistaken.

[twobits]

A police force tries to cope with, not cause, the social decay that is in Surrey. Surrey is a materialistic urban sprawl hell without even a city centre. Just a terrible place. Full of second generation Asian males used to being pampered in their culture and suddenly being forced into the North American culture. Instead of putting in an effort to succeed without being pampered, they resort to taking the easy way to get the big car. Gangsterism pays for a few years but eventually somebody else tries to take it from you. So it becomes kill or be killed.

I have never been a supporter of parents being responsible for a child's crime but what I see happening in the lower Mainland, and spreading, makes me reconsider that notion. Perhaps not in jail time but bankrupcy as a result of proceeds of crime brought on by their spawn as a consideration of immigration eligibility might be a cultural motivation they can wrap their heads around. That or agree for their spawn to be deported forever.

[the truth]

it only took surrey until 2018 to put this in, its about time https://bc.ctvnews.ca/decade-after-fath ... -1.4208200