'No more sides': Surrey mayor welcomes police force she opposed
After years of fighting for the RCMP, Brenda Locke welcomes the Surrey Police Service as the city's new force
With the handover from the RCMP to the Surrey Police Service only hours old, leaders of both forces and members of government came together to publicly mark the occasion Friday, including Mayor Brenda Locke who fought the transition for the past two years.
At midnight, the SPS officially took the reins of policing in B.C.'s second biggest city, ending 73 years of Surrey contracting services from the RCMP.
Locke, who was elected in 2022 on a platform of retaining the RCMP, called the day "emotional."
"It's no secret I was opposed to this transition," she said. "I was standing up for Surrey taxpayers and for a police service that I believe has served our community well.
"And while it may have felt like we were once on different sides of a public debate, I want to assure you that we will do everything in our power to support those who stand up to protect our citizens, our residents. There are no more sides."
In July, Surrey agreed to an offer from the province of up to $250 million over the next 10 years to help pay for the transition.
SPS Chief Constable Norm Lipinski said the changeover marks a new era for the city.
"At midnight, I had the honour of making the first police radio broadcast for Surrey Police Service, and I can tell you it was the highlight of my career."
The transition started in earnest in 2021, with SPS officers working the front lines alongside RCMP members and under RCMP command.
The handover means command has now officially switched to the SPS, with those officers now representing more than 50 per cent of frontline staff.
Lipinski said 475 officers have been hired out of the 785 that are needed to be fully staffed. The RCMP will continue to lower its staff numbers as the SPS numbers increase.
RCMP Assistant Commissioner John Brewer said Friday that RCMP in Surrey will now be operating as a provincial operations support unit to assist SPS with the transition. The unit will be led by Chief Supt. Wendy Mehat, who moves from being officer in charge in Maple Ridge.
"It's been a long road to reach this point and there's still plenty of road ahead of us," Brewer said. "While the RCMP's role in Surrey will now shift, our commitment and dedication to public safety will not change."
RCMP frontline members will continue to serve in the policing neighbourhoods of Guildford-Fleetwood, Cloverdale and South Surrey, he said, until there are enough SPS officers to fill the positions. SPS officers are working in the policing neighbourhoods of Whalley and Newton.
Former West Vancouver police chief and B.C. Solicitor General Kash Heed said Surrey citizens aren't likely to notice much difference in how their city is policed. However, he said he expects the behind-the-scenes tension to continue between the two forces.
"You won't see any change whatsoever on your response times and the officers that attend. They'll just have a different colour uniform on," he said.
"At a different level, the senior management level between the two organizations, that's where you're going to see conflict. And that conflict has been ongoing for up to six years now. And I don't see any signs of it abating over the next little while."
Heed believes Surrey's move away from the RCMP to a police force that's rooted in the community could spark other cities in Canada to consider the same.
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With files from Amelia John