Surrey Police Union raises alarm bells on public safety in Surrey

SURREY: The decision on whether to keep RCMP or Surrey Police Service (SPS) as the police of jurisdiction will be made by the BC’s Director of Police Services and Mike Farnworth, minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General after reviewing a transition plan.
Minister Farnworth has made it clear that public safety will be the core driving principle for all decisions and timelines related to policing in Surrey.
However, according to Surrey Police Union (SPU), Surrey RCMP is withholding alarming information related to public safety in Surrey.
SPU states that the RCMP’s internal guidelines related to staffing levels are not enforced by any agreement. “Therefore, it is common for Watches to run below these minimums without any accountability or recourse to the police union or the membership.”
Raising the alarm bells, SPU in a statement mentioned that “there have been early mornings in the City of Surrey where one entire District (ranging between 74,000 to 154,000 residents) has been staffed with a single Constable from 03:30 hours until 06:00 hours.”
Even more concerning is number of staff at the Operational Communications Centre (“OCC”), which is responsible for 911 service to the public. It strives to have 14 staff members during the day and 12 staff members at night. “It is a regular occurrence that OCC is staffed with just 3-4 staff members, which means that non-emergency calls are not responded to.”
SPU’s disclosure of these numbers came after Surrey City Council endorsed a framework to maintain RCMP in Surrey on Monday. Assistant Commissioner Brian Edwards, commanding officer of the Surrey RCMP, appeared at Monday night’s council meeting to lay out the plan for keeping the national force.
The city announced that a Joint Project Team will oversee the development of the final plan for Council endorsement on Dec. 12, prior to being forwarded to the Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General for approval. The Project Team consists of senior leadership from the City and RCMP and consultants Dr. Peter German and Tonia Enger.
Surrey’s Ex Mayor while responding, said it was an affront to accountability that only Surrey RCMP were invited to speak to the City Council. “The current numbers of frontline officers on the ground in Surrey are alarming,” he said.
The resulting dangers for Surrey residents and officers alike are being glossed over in the name of politics, according to SPU President Rick Stewart. 
“After watching OIC Edwards’ comments last night, I am very concerned by the deliberate omission of the actual policing scenarios taking place on the ground as a result of RCMP staffing shortages,” said Stewart. “When there is a regular occurrence of only 1-3 officers patrolling the entirety of South Surrey and Cloverdale at night, it is clear that the daily threats to public safety in Surrey are not being taken seriously by RCMP leadership.” 
While crunching some more numbers SPU stated:
7 out of 14 shifts (50%) in the past week (November 20 – November 26) were below minimum staffing levels as per RCMP’s own standard; 
On November 26, Surrey RCMP was not accepting non-emergency calls due to shortages in the Operations Control Centre; 
On November 26, there were only 18 constables working the entirety of Surrey after 3:30am; 
On November 23, 12 officers had to be pulled in for overtime, which still was not able to raise staffing levels to meet the RCMP standard.
Surrey RCMP on the other hand, have refuted this information. Releasing a statement to media, Edwards said, the union’s news release contains “inaccurate” information.
“It is not common practice for police to release exact breakdowns of operational resources on any given shift,” said Edwards.
“What I can say is that the statistics and numbers provided by the SPU are inaccurate, and in my view, are deliberately intended to mislead the public. I call on the Surrey Police Service Executive to expend all efforts to discontinue this harmful rhetoric from the Surrey Police Union.”
The Surrey detachment is funded for 734 positions and is currently exceeding that target, said Edwards. Edwards acknowledged, however, that the Operational Control Centre has been impacted by a shortage of call-takers and dispatchers.
“Our OCC staff are City of Surrey employees, and we are working closely with the City to mitigate the effects of these shortages and we will soon have more hires in place.”
At the end, it does not matter whose narrative wins. It is important to consider that the public safety of the people of Surrey is not lost between controversies, contradictions and personal commitments.