Another election is fast approaching, and I believe one of the main discussions should be around the RCMP. Is it time that the City of Surrey created its own municipal police force?
SFU criminology professor Curt Griffiths said Surrey needs to make a serious investment in policing. “They’re going to need four or five hundred more officers,” he said. – Global News
Communities across Canada that lack their own police depend on Mounties as the cheaper option. Vancouverites pay about $420 per capita each year for their standalone police force. Their RCMP-operated municipal force – one of more than a dozen operated by the Mounties in the Lower Mainland – costs $230 per capita.
In Vancouver, taxpayers get one police officer for every 494 people. Residents of North Vancouver, whose streets are patrolled by the RCMP, get a force that’s more thinly stretched: one officer for every 952 people.
The RCMP staffs its Lower Mainland detachments more thinly than neighbouring, independent jurisdictions, and its officers juggle more cases. This likely has significant implications for the officers and citizens living in those jurisdictions, including fewer cases solved. While a police officer in an independent jurisdiction carries between 20 and 45 cases a year, a Mountie in a regional detachment handles 45 to 90. “The lower costs for RCMP contract policing are due in large measure to RCMP detachments being understaffed compared to their [independent] counterparts,” Prof. Griffiths said. – The Globe & Mail
In the Lower Mainland, crime rates tend to be higher in RCMP jurisdictions than in ones policed by independent forces. The conclusion: “Fewer police officers = more crime.”
In the early 2000s, the City of Surrey considered the pros and cons of establishing its own independent force.
“The RCMP are trained to do mostly rural policing in Canada. They still are controlled by Ottawa.” Doug McCallum. A 2001 report stated it clearly: It didn’t make any financial sense. “The primary disadvantages of establishing a Surrey Municipal Police Service are as follows: loss of the 10-per-cent subsidy; start-up costs of approximately $3-million and possibly more; [and] Surrey Municipal Police Service members would probably join or form a police union,” the report said. – Corporate Report
For years, senior municipal police officials and academics have argued that a regional police force in Metro Vancouver would be far more effective than the current collection of RCMP detachments, city forces, and TransLink police. – The Straight
Its been 17 years since the City of Surrey analyzed this debate. I believe a few things have changed over the past few years. First, the killing of hockey mom Julie Paskall just outside the Newton arena in 2013, and then the 2014 murder of teen Serena Vermeersch. There were 59 shootings in Surrey during 2017, compared to 61 in 2016 and 88 in 2015. – Surrey-Now Leader
The largest single RCMP detachment is in the City of Surrey. Why has every other city opted for a municipal force? Do we really value lower property taxes over lower crime rates?
Cheers,
