2022 municipal election: Police debate dominates Surrey mayoral race, again

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Surrey voters will elect their next mayor and council on October 15 and, for the second time in four years, will consider who they want to police their town.

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The municipal elections are in the midst of Surrey’s transition from RCMP to a municipal police force, a process that began four years ago when Mayor Doug McCallum and eight councilors from the Safe Surrey Coalition were elected after campaigning to unseat the Mounties.

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

Some things have not changed between the 2018 and 2022 elections. The RCMP remains in charge in Surrey, although the transition is underway with 274 SPS officers hired so far.

But the discussion has also evolved over the last four years, with new candidates offering vastly different visions of what comes next for Surrey’s police force, from staying the course to reversing it.

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“I’m not sure people want to review or undo the transition,” said Hamish Telford, an associate professor of political science at the University of the Fraser Valley. “Undoing what has already been done could become an expensive proposition.”

But Telford said there are also those who are staunchly against the transition and will likely vote for Brenda Locke, the only candidate promising to retain the RCMP. Locke, who left Safe Surrey in 2019 over council transparency concerns and is running for mayor with Surrey Connect, recently pegged the cost of the transition at $521 million, far more than the $63.7 million budget.

“We cannot continue with a transition that is destabilizing policing in our city and throughout the region,” he told Postmedia News, calling the transition a “failed experiment.”

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If McCallum wins, the transition will continue. In a written response to Postmedia questions about policing, the party noted McCallum’s “recent achievements”, including leading Surrey council to unanimously approve the creation of the SPS “with local responsibility”.

Several candidates promise more accountability and transparency. Gordie Hogg and Surrey First have promised voters a referendum on the police if elected.

“Doug McCallum wants to move forward with the policing transition, no matter what the cost,” he said. “Brenda Locke, who raced with Doug and won with Doug, now wants to call off the transition and stop it cold turkey, again regardless of the costs.”

Hogg said he wants budgets and timelines to be made public before holding a referendum.

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Jinny Sims and Surrey Forward also want more information made public, promising to freeze the transition for 90 days so that a forensic audit can be carried out, options and costs clarified, and the information shared with the public. The City Council will also hold a public consultation on the subject.

“The city of Surrey is big enough to have its own force,” he told Postmedia, “but the transition has become toxic.”

Sims also took aim at Locke, accusing her in a press release of “running away from her own decision.”

Sukh Dhaliwal and United Surrey avoided the transition debate, promising to increase public safety and build a police training center in Surrey. Dhaliwal also plans to implement a three-tier system “that ensures timely and appropriate citizen responses by better utilizing a mix of police, mental health professionals and law enforcement officers.”

Amrit Birring and Peoples Council Surrey plan to focus on improving employment and lowering the cost of living to combat crime.

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