SPD (Surrey Police Force) Discussion
 

I didn't see a dedicated thread for the proposed Surrey Police Force, so I thought I would create one.

Saw this article today on CBC.ca:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...rcmp-1.4902589

I thinking having a rolling deployment would be the best way to get the force started. There is no other way you could start the force in two years.

I think it's ridiculous we don't have a single metro Vancouver police force. All these separate jurisdictions where half the time they don't communicate with each other is totally inefficient

Well we do the RCMP. Just Vancouver itself is independent.

And Delta, and New Westminster, and Port Moody, and West Vancouver. And the Transit Police.

Oh my mistake I forgot these because there so small.

Exactly. A municiaplity with 600,000 residents needs its own force, not one that takes orders from, and answers to Ottawa.

The RCMP is great for Cranbrook, but not Surrey, Richmond or Burnaby. As you state, a regional or at least a more local force is the way to go.

Speaking as someone from Richmond I think the RCMP is doing great!

They get rid of the cardboard sign guys in the medians in under 24 hours. Probably the most important criminal issue plaguing average Richmond residents is these guys.

The VPD gave up on this.

The Coquitlam RCMP don't seem to care about them, even a couple of blocks away from their HQ.

Look at the murder map and you'll know why the police in Downtown, East Vancouver, Burnaby, New West and Surrey are so busy. Funnily all the deaths in Richmond are usually domestic while the rest of Metro is usually gangs:

https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic...10/Capture.png

Go here for the stories being each point:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/vi...rce=embed&z=12

Even the RCMP per city is rather distinct with operations (independent of each other)

Burnaby RCMP needs prior authorization/permission to go work in Coquitlam for example.

We just have regional Transit Police, and then you have highway patrol RCMP divisions.

Didn't the RCMP in Surrey just build a brand new building?

I wonder how this plays into the mechanism of a new police force, is Surrey on the hook for buying out the building?

Fingers still crossed for one big MVPD, like Toronto and Montreal. Then again, I've also got fingers crossed for a Stanley Cup.

Metropolitan Toronto (GTA) doesn't have a unified police force. The City, Peel Region, York Region and Durham region all have their own police forces.

Besides, doesn't Metro Vancouver have IHIT and gang task forces that integrate the separate forces on major crimes? Seems like that is really the most important part.

I stand corrected.

Why not integrate the whole of the forces? Back during the transit referendum, the argument for keeping the Transit Police was that unlike the other PDs, TransLink did not have to stop at the civic boundaries, as with the IHIT and gang TFs. Way I figure, giving them all to one unified force seems much more efficient. Better coordination, better use of resources.

Same reason why people complain about dedicating resources to IHIT that a municipality is paying for services that they perceive they have no need for.

VPD isn't a part of IHIT either.

I think the building you're talking about is Green Timbers. It's the Division (Provincial) HQ for the RCMP in BC. It has little to do with local policing in Surrey. As far as I know it's owned by either RCMP or the province. Although each community with an RCMP detachment had to help pay for it. I think that's why certain former mayors had issues with it's cost.

In 2014 for $1 billion as the regional HQ:

Green Timbers Accommodation Partners agreed to a fixed price of $966 million to design, build, finance and maintain the facility for a term ending 25 years after construction.
Included in this amount was $263 million for design and construction (including $120 million which was paid by Canada during the construction phase) and $703 million for project financing, building maintenance, and lifecycle repair and renewal over the term of the agreement.
Additionally, Canada will pay $8.9 million in insurance costs over the 25 year period for a total of $975 million.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...-b-c-1.1333252

Current Surrey main detachment is still at 14355 57th Avenue Surrey since 1990.

http://www.surreyhistory.ca/police.html

In the loose sense that any police officer sworn in in Ontario can carry out his/her duty outside her jurisdiction, sure. (I have seen TPS roaming around in Halton Region before, and between that and Toronto there's Peel Region... I've also been pulled over by Ottawa Police on Highway 417 which is technically under our provincial police.)

I'm surprised that this is not the case in BC.

Neither does Montreal. Though the entire island (city proper + on-island suburban municipalities) is covered by a single police force.

Once you get off the island the suburbs have a hodge-podge of police services.