Municipal Election 2022: Policing dominates Surrey mayoral race, again

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Surrey voters will elect their subsequent mayor and council on Oct. 15, and for the second time in 4 years, contemplate who they need to police their metropolis.

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The municipal election falls partway by means of Surrey’s transition from the RCMP to a municipal police power, a course of that started 4 years in the past when Mayor Doug McCallum and eight Protected Surrey Coalition councillors had been elected after campaigning to drop the Mounties.

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Moments after the swearing-in ceremony, council’s first movement was to create the Surrey Police Service. (SPS)

Some issues haven’t modified between the 2018 and 2022 elections. The RCMP stays in cost in Surrey, though the transition is nicely underway with 274 SPS officers employed to date.

However the dialogue has additionally developed over the past 4 years, with new candidates providing vastly completely different visions of what comes subsequent for Surrey’s police power, from staying the course, to reversing it.

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“I’m undecided individuals need to revisit or undo the transition,” mentioned Hamish Telford, an affiliate professor of political science on the College of the Fraser Valley. “Undoing what has already been achieved may change into an costly proposition.”

However Telford mentioned there are additionally those that are adamantly in opposition to the transition and can probably vote for Brenda Locke, the one candidate who’s vowing to retain the RCMP. Locke, who left Protected Surrey in 2019 over considerations about council’s transparency and is operating for mayor with Surrey Join, just lately pegged the price of the transition at $521 million, excess of the $63.7 million price range.

“We can’t maintain occurring a transition that’s destabilizing policing in our metropolis and throughout the area,” she instructed Postmedia Information, calling the transition a “failed experiment.”

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If McCallum wins, the transition will proceed. In a written response to Postmedia questions on policing, the occasion pointed to McCallum’s “current accomplishments,” together with main Surrey council to unanimously approve the creation of the SPS “with native accountability.”

A number of candidates are promising extra accountability and transparency. Gordie Hogg and Surrey First have promised voters a referendum on policing if elected.

“Doug McCallum needs to push forward with the police transition, whatever the value,” he mentioned. “Brenda Locke, who ran with Doug and received with Doug, now needs to cancel the transition and convey it to a screeching halt, once more whatever the prices.”

Hogg mentioned he needs budgets and timelines made public earlier than holding a referendum.

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Jinny Sims and Surrey Ahead additionally need extra info made public, vowing to freeze the transition for 90 days so a forensic audit may be performed, choices and prices made clear, and the knowledge shared with the general public. Metropolis council may even maintain public session on the problem.

“The Metropolis of Surrey is massive sufficient to have its personal power,” she instructed Postmedia, “however the transition has change into poisonous.”

Sims additionally took goal at Locke, accusing her in a information launch of “operating away from her personal determination.”

Sukh Dhaliwal and United Surrey steered away from the transition debate, promising to extend public security and construct a law-enforcement coaching facility in Surrey. Dhaliwal additionally plans to implement a three-tier system “that ensures well timed and applicable citizen responses by higher using a mixture of legislation enforcement, mental-health professionals and bylaw officers.”

Amrit Birring and the Peoples Council Surrey plan to give attention to bettering employment and decreasing the price of residing to fight crime.

gluymes@postmedia.com

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