City council cuts funding to Surrey Crime Prevention Society

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The director of a nonprofit that operates a youth volunteer crime prevention program in Surrey says the mayor and city council’s refusal this week to guarantee its funding will have long-term repercussions for the community.

Mani Fallon, volunteer president of the Surrey Crime Prevention Society, said the group has already been forced to reduce the number of community safety patrols since its 2023 city grant ran out in December.

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“We have a queue of over 100 young people who are waiting for training to join our program, but they will have to wait longer, perhaps until after they graduate from high school, before they can volunteer with us for their future careers.” .

The society trains and deploys around 500 volunteers to observe, record and report suspicious activity in Surrey. Its community safety patrols are involved in graffiti removal and efforts to get motorists to slow down. Since 1982, it has relied on annual city grants of about $300,000 to operate its $600,000 budget.

A five-to-four vote this week dominated by Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke and the majority of her council had delayed a decision on whether to grant it funding for at least another month.

The decision comes as Locke and the Surrey Connect party continue their years-long fight to try to thwart the RCMP’s transition to the Surrey Police Service.

Count. Pardeep Kooner of Locke’s Surrey Connect party authored the motion, which included denying community grants to Metro Vancouver Crime Stoppers and Lookout Society, as part of the city’s approval of its 2024 budget.

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Kooner said the denial of funding is a result of safety concerns that some councilors, including herself, have about the Crime Prevention Society.

“Residents, and even committee members, have raised questions about the safety of the youth working in the program, such as, ‘Why aren’t these kids supervised?’”

“There has been $4.6 million that the city has given to this organization over the years. “We want to ensure the best possible use of taxpayers’ money.”

The nonprofit society first learned that its funding could be at risk in late November, when a city-appointed public safety committee, made up of four civilians and two council members, threatened to deny it a community grant if at least half of the society’s volunteers did not work under the direction of the jurisdiction’s police, which is the Surrey RCMP.

Chairman of the committee Count. Rob Stutt, of the Surrey Connect party, says the safety of the society’s volunteers was a priority when the committee demanded the society work under the direction of the police to receive funding in 2024.

“We want to make sure its use is effective and that police can tell which areas need attention,” Stutt said Thursday.

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“We want to make sure that these young people — you know, they could get courses and lectures and things like that — but you know, driving around at 2 a.m. doing patrols, that their good work doesn’t turn into something unfortunate if they’re in the wrong place in the wrong time.”

Count. Doug Elford, a member of the opposition Safe Surrey Coalition, disagrees that the council’s vote to deny funding to the crime prevention society comes down to safety concerns.

“We have an organization that has been established for 40 years with these young people out all the time and very few issues regarding safety,” Elford said.

“This organization and its volunteers do really good work and have worked closely with the police for many years. I don’t think it’s a security issue, but what I will say is that I think when Surrey Police Services serves as the police jurisdiction, I think there will be much better relationships formed between organizations like this and city council.”

Fallon said the society’s young volunteers are accompanied by staff “at all times” while conducting public safety patrols, carrying radios with them and adhering to strict safety protocols.

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The president said the nonprofit recently stopped security patrols in White Rock immediately after random stabbing attacks against South Asian men in the neighborhood appeared to occur in recent weeks.

“We’re on it,” Fallon said. “We’ve been doing this for four decades, why is the safety being questioned now?”

The president said the crime prevention society is the only one of its kind in Canada, which has seen most of its volunteers (currently more than 700) work in public service or in law enforcement, corrections, public services. border or as officials in charge of the ordinance. .

Fallon said the non-profit relies on inter-agency collaborations with public service agencies such as ICBC and Metro Vancouver Transit Police to carry out its crime prevention programs.

“This year alone, our volunteers have reported two stolen vehicles to police, as well as multiple fires and overdoses to emergency services,” Fallon said.

“Last summer, Brampton (Peel Regional) police officers flew here to learn from us. If other Canadian police agencies are trying to replicate what we have, why is our city trying to tear us down?

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While British Columbia Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth announced Tuesday that Surrey Police Services will officially take over on Nov. 29, 2024, Locke continues to await the results of a judicial review of the province’s actions. to move forward with the transition.

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