Surrey Police Service | |
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Common name | Surrey Police |
Abbreviation | SPS |
Motto | Safer. Stronger. Together. |
Agency overview | |
Formed | August 6, 2020 [1] [2] |
Employees | 417 [3] |
Annual budget | $184.1m [4] |
Jurisdictional structure | |
Operations jurisdiction | Surrey, British Columbia, Canada |
Size | 316.41 square kilometres (122.17 sq mi) |
Population | 517,887 |
Governing body | Surrey Police Board |
Constituting instrument | |
General nature | |
Operational structure | |
Headquarters | 14355 57 Avenue |
Sworn Officers | 357 [3] |
Civilians | 60 [3] |
Elected officers responsible |
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Agency executives |
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Website | |
www |
The Surrey Police Service (SPS) is a municipal police force in the city of Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. It is one of several police departments within the Metro Vancouver Regional District, [5] and as of December 2022, the second largest municipal police service in British Columbia. Prior to the SPS's establishment, Surrey was Canada's largest city without a municipal police service. [6] The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Canada's federal police force, currently has policing jurisdiction in Surrey, and SPS has had difficulty with the transition from the RCMP due to opposition from Surrey mayor Brenda Locke and the municipal government. [6] In April of 2024 the provincial government of British Columbia set a deadline for the transfer of jurisdiction. The Surrey Police Service will transition into the role of municipal policing in Surrey on November 29, 2024. [7]
Surrey maintained a municipal police department until May 1, 1951, when the city contracted its policing to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. [8] [9]
On October 20, 2018, Doug McCallum was elected as mayor after campaigning to remove the RCMP and return to a municipal police agency. On November 5, 2018, Surrey councillors (including then-councillor Brenda Locke) formally voted to begin the transition from the RCMP to the Surrey Police Service. [10]
The Surrey Police Board was created on February 27, 2020. Norm Lipinski was appointed as the police chief in November 2020. On November 2021, the first Surrey Police Service officers were deployed alongside Surrey RCMP officers. [11]
In the 2022 Surrey Mayoral Election, Brenda Locke was elected as mayor of Surrey after campaigning to halt the police transition and keep the RCMP contract. [12] On Nov 14, 2022, Surrey's city council voted to stop the transition.
On April 28, 2023, the provincial government recommended that the City retain the Surrey Police Service, stating that restaffing the Surrey RCMP would destabilize RCMP staffing across the province, among other concerns. [13]
On June 16, 2023, Surrey council voted to reaffirm its decision to reverse the transition and return to RCMP policing. [14]
On July 19, 2023, the provincial government ordered the city to continue to transition to the Surrey Police Service. [15]
On October 13, 2023, the Surrey government filed a lawsuit against the province seeking an injunction to suspend the transition. [16] In response, the BC Legislative Assembly passed the Police Amendment Act, 2023, which enables the Solicitor General to compel the Surrey government into completing the transition and terminating their contract with the RCMP. [17]
On November 16, 2023, the BC Solicitor General Mike Farnworth suspended the authority of the Surrey Police Board, invoking the powers granted by the Police Amendment Act, 2023. Farnworth claimed that this was done because the Board was deliberately stalling on the transition process from the RCMP to the SPS. Mayor Locke, who was also the chair of the board, regarded this action as a "takeover" by the provincial government. Mike Serr, a former Abbotsford Police chief, was installed as an administrator to act in the Board's place. [18]
On May 23, 2024, the BC Supreme Court dismissed the city's lawsuit, ruling that the new provincial law mandating that Surrey replace the RCMP with the SPS, was constitutional. [19]
The province has announced that the Surrey Police Service will take command of the jurisdiction on November 29, 2024. [20]
An operational budget of $184 million was planned for the fiscal year 2021, while another $63.7 million was budgeted over five years from 2020 to 2024 to complete the transition from the RCMP. [4]
There will be five SPS districts, aligned with the city of Surrey neighbourhood boundaries. A District Inspector will manage each district. [21] The Metro Team will be a flexible unit responsible for a citywide patrol.
SPS maintains three bureaus, each managed by a Deputy Chief Constable: [21] [22]
Community Policing Bureau
Investigative Services Bureau
Support Services Bureau
Brenda Locke, the current mayor, has opposed the transition to a municipal police force since 2022. In 2018, as a city councillor, she voted in favour of creating a municipal police force.
The RCMP police union (the National Police Federation) and some community members raised opposition to the establishment of a municipal police force. This group attempted to force a province-wide referendum on the issue in 2021, but failed to secure enough signatures for the vote to proceed. [23]
The Surrey Police Service planned to hire 400 officers in 2022. It was accused of poaching officers from other municipal police forces as it rapidly expanded and recruited experienced officers from 18 police forces. [24] In 2022, the Service entered into its first contract with the Surrey Police Union, which included agreements that new recruits would be among the highest-paid in the country and a parity clause that ensured that annual raises would match those of the nearby Vancouver Police Department. [25]
Surrey is a city in British Columbia, Canada. It is located south of the Fraser River on the Canada–United States border. It is a member municipality of the Metro Vancouver regional district and metropolitan area. Mainly a suburban city, Surrey is the province's second-largest by population after Vancouver and the third-largest by area after Abbotsford and Prince George. Seven neighbourhoods in Surrey are designated town centres: Cloverdale, Fleetwood, Guildford, Newton, South Surrey, and City Centre encompassed by Whalley.
A police board, police services board, or police commission is an appointed commission of a local government charged with the responsibility of overseeing a local police force. Police boards may be required by government regulation, as they are in most of Canada, or they may be voluntarily formed by individual municipalities.
Doug McCallum is a Canadian politician who was mayor of Surrey, British Columbia, from 1996 to 2005 and from 2018 to 2022. McCallum was first elected to a seat on Surrey City Council in 1993. During this term he served as Chair of the Finance Committee and sat as a member of the Parks and Recreation Commission and the Library Board. He was re-elected in the October 20, 2018 local elections in British Columbia. He was defeated in the 2022 election.
The Metro Vancouver Transit Police (MVTP), previously the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority Police Service and formally the South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority Police Service (SCBCTAPS), is the police force for TransLink, the public transit system of the Metro Vancouver region of British Columbia, Canada.
The Vancouver Police Department (VPD) is the police force in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is one of several police departments within the Metro Vancouver Area and is the second largest police force in the province after RCMP "E" Division.
Law enforcement in Canada is the responsibility of police services, special constabularies, and civil law enforcement agencies, which are operated by every level of government, some private and Crown corporations, and First Nations. In contrast to the United States or Mexico, and with the exception of the Unité permanente anticorruption in Quebec and the Organized Crime Agency of British Columbia, there are no organizations dedicated exclusively to the investigation of criminal activity in Canada. Criminal investigations are instead conducted by police services, which maintain specialized criminal investigation units in addition to their mandate for emergency response and general community safety.
"E" Division is the division of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the province of British Columbia, Canada's westernmost province. It is the largest police body in the province, providing federal and provincial services throughout the province and policing all but 12 municipalities. In some urban areas, some municipalities have their own police forces while neighbouring ones contract with E Division. For example, Richmond is patrolled by E Division while neighbouring Vancouver has its own police force; both organizations contribute members and resources to various regional initiatives. E Division is the largest RCMP division, with 127 local detachments.
The West Vancouver Police Department (WVPD) is the municipal police force for the district of West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
The British Columbia Provincial Police (BCPP) was the provincial police service of British Columbia, Canada, between 1858 and 1950.
Dianne Lynn Watts is a former politician in British Columbia, Canada. She won her first federal election campaign in October 2015 to become a federal Member of Parliament for South Surrey—White Rock. In 2017 she resigned as MP to pursue a failed leadership bid for the BC Liberal provincial party. Previously, Watts served as the mayor of Surrey, the second-largest city in the province from 2005 to 2014. She was elected in 2005 to this office as the city's first female mayor.
Sue Hammell is a Canadian politician who was the Member of the Legislative Assembly for Surrey-Green Timbers in the province of British Columbia from 1991 to 2001, and from 2005 to 2017. A member of the British Columbia New Democratic Party, she served in several cabinet posts under Premiers Mike Harcourt, Glen Clark and Ujjal Dosanjh.
Kash Heed is a Canadian politician and former police officer. Since 2022, Heed is a member of Richmond City Council. Heed served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, representing the riding of Vancouver-Fraserview, from 2009 to 2013. A member of the BC Liberal Party, from 2009 to 2010 he was the Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General in the Campbell ministry.
Gordon "Gordie" Hogg is a Canadian politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Surrey—White Rock in the House of Commons of Canada from 2017 to 2019, as a member of the Liberal Party of Canada. He previously represented Surrey-White Rock in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia from 1997 to 2017 as part of the British Columbia Liberal Party caucus, serving in several cabinet positions under Premier Gordon Campbell during that time, and was the mayor of White Rock, British Columbia, from 1984 to 1993.
Brenda Joy Locke is a Canadian politician, who served in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia from 2001 to 2005 and is the current mayor of Surrey, British Columbia. She represented the electoral district of Surrey-Green Timbers as a member of the BC Liberal party. In 2022, Locke was elected as mayor of Surrey, defeating Doug McCallum.
Amrik S. Virk is a Canadian politician, who was elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in the 2013 provincial election. He represented the electoral district of Surrey-Tynehead as a member of the British Columbia Liberal Party and was appointed Minister of Advanced Education on June 10, 2013, by Premier Christy Clark. Following a compensation scandal, he was appointed Minister of Technology, Innovation, and Citizens' Services on December 18, 2014, dropping his responsibilities for Advanced Education.
Colin G. Basran is a Canadian politician who served as the mayor of Kelowna, British Columbia from 2014 to 2022.
Rachna Singh is a Canadian politician and trade unionist who has represented the electoral district of Surrey-Green Timbers in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia since 2017. A member of the British Columbia New Democratic Party caucus, she has served as Minister of Education and Child Care of British Columbia since December 2022.
The Safe Surrey Coalition is a civic political party in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada.
The 2024 British Columbia general election will be held on or before October 19, 2024, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly to serve in the 43rd parliament of the Canadian province of British Columbia.