New municipal force will take over at midnight Nov. 29, the transition away from the RCMP is not expected to be complete until 2026 or 2027.
When the Surrey Police Service takes over command of policing from the RCMP at midnight on Nov. 29, the new force’s Chief Constable Norm Lipinski said residents will be safe as the change continues a transition that started three years ago.
The two forces will also provide support citywide when needed, for example, when there are significant incidents, or for an issue of public safety, said Lipinski.
The next policing district the SPS will take over in 2025 is South Surrey.
The transition from the RCMP is not expected to be complete until sometime in 2026 or 2027. During the transition, SPS and RCMP vehicles will be patrolling Surrey.
Lipinski noted that while the SPS will be moving into the former RCMP headquarters on King George Highway, the emergency numbers and police response will not change.
He noted that planning has been underway for months and includes a first-day resourcing plan that lays out where all officers will be and what their duties are.
There is also a handover plan on specialty and investigative units, which includes file transfers, which will take place gradually as the SPS increases their number of officers and the RCMP reduces their staffing.
“Two days away. We are ready. We feel confident,” said Lipinski.
Mike Serr, the B.C. government-appointed Surrey police board administrator, noted the transition has been challenging and commended those who helped move it forward. “It should not be lost on anybody that this is the largest policing transition in Canadian history,” said Serr, a former Abbotsford police chief.
During the long-running battle, Locke and her council had refused to fund a ramped-up transition and hiring essentially halted.
So far, the SPS has hired 446 officers, nearly 60 per cent of the 785 officers needed for Surrey.
Of those, about 270 are working patrol or on the front lines, about 50 per cent of the front line work is being shared with the RCMP, according to Lipinski.
Other SPS officers are overseeing operations, recruiting and training officers, and working on the logistics of the transition.
The Surrey RCMP did not respond to questions this week on their preparations for the Nov. 29 takeover and their staffing numbers.
The RCMP’s provincial branch will oversee the Surrey detachment RCMP officers after the SPS takes over command.
A key concern of Locke and her majority council was the municipal force will increase costs.
The province’s financial package includes $30 million a year until 2029 to assist with the transition. It also includes as much as $20 million a year between 2029 and 2034 if Surrey Police Service costs are higher than the city would have paid to the RCMP.
Locke has repeatedly pointed to a difference of $75 million from the Deloitte report, but that compared to an SPS force of 900 officers to an RCMP force of 734 officers.
The B.C. government appointed two leading experts in the policing field, Tonia Enger and Clayton Pecknold, to represent the city at a joint implementation table, alongside representatives from the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General, Public Safety Canada, the RCMP and the SPS.