New Surrey mayor hopes municipal police officers will switch to RCMP
But an expert warns there are significant complications for an officer with no RCMP training to join the national force.
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After being sworn in this week, Surrey mayor Brenda Locke appeared to extend an olive branch to the more than 370 officers and staff hired so far by the city’s new Surrey Police Service.
Locke, who campaigned on a promise to halt the transition to a municipal force and stick with the RCMP, said she wants the members of the Surrey Police Service to know she understands they are in an uncomfortable position.
Following her inauguration, Locke said a report on halting the transition would be people-centric and officers and civilian staff would be cared for.
In an interview on Tuesday, Locke said she would like many of the Surrey Police Service officers to work for the RCMP. She has noted it is no secret that Surrey is in dire need of more police officers.
“I have been talking and working with the Surrey RCMP about that very thing,” she said.
But it might not be that simple.
Rob Gordon, a professor emeritus of criminology at Simon Fraser University, said there may not be too many obstacles with former RCMP officers returning to the force, but it might be harder for municipal police officers as, for example, they have not trained at the RCMP depot in Regina.
The RCMP trains recruits at that depot division, while in B.C., municipal police recruits get their training at the Justice Institute of B.C.
“It’s complicated,” said Gordon, noting there are other issues. “They will have to unwind a lot of things such as pensions, for example.”
Of the 315 police officers hired so far by the Surrey force, 55 per cent are from municipal forces and 45 per cent from the RCMP, according to figures provided by the SPS. Officers from the Surrey RCMP detachment account for 12.5 per cent of Surrey Police hires.
There are also 59 civilian hires.
The Surrey Police Service union has already said that there would be “very little interest” from Surrey Police Service officers to work for the RCMP, as many of them left other police agencies or signed up as new recruits because they wanted to work for the Surrey force.
On Tuesday, Surrey Police spokesperson Ian MacDonald said there are also issues of whether officers quit or retired and whether they want to go back, or could do so at the same seniority, rank and pay to former municipal jobs or at the RCMP.
He pointed out that the Surrey Police Service and RCMP have different unions and pay scales and there is an issue of severance for the SPS if the transition was halted, unless officers chose to leave voluntarily.
Locke noted that the RCMP has an experienced officer program that allows an expedited process to join the force. “So, that’s what would happen for those people that wanted to perhaps stay in Surrey or go somewhere in an RCMP jurisdiction,” she said.
In a written response, the RCMP said it will await any decisions that relate to the transition but remain open to all opportunities and would advance any staffing or hiring processes should it be necessary.
“Significant work has taken police to ‘onboard’ SPS officers under RCMP command as part of Phase 1 in the transition and that created a number of processes and procedures that could be leveraged if needed,” said B.C. RCMP spokeswoman Dawn Roberts in an email.
She also pointed to the RCMP’s experienced policing officer program. “We respect and value the policing contributions of our SPS colleagues and … would certainly welcome them to the RCMP,” said Roberts.
Locke has said that keeping the RCMP in Surrey will save significant amounts of money, an assertion disputed by the Surrey Police Board.
On Tuesday, Locke said the cost implications of halting the transition will be laid out in the report by city staff that will be presented to the B.C. government, which has the final say on halting the transition.
B.C. Solicitor General Mike Farnworth has said his ministry would have to see a concrete plan to support halting the transition from Surrey that included costs and the full implications on both the SPS and the Surrey RCMP.
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