The RCMP’s efforts to maintain authority in British Columbia have failed following a power struggle with the newly formed Surrey Police Service.
The B.C. Supreme Court’s ruling against keeping the RCMP in Surrey charts a path for other Canadian communities to make the transition to municipal policing.
Soon after the decision, the federal government issued a joint statement with the Surrey Police Service on its willingness to engage in modern co-operative policing models.
Maintaining public safety and the integrity of criminal investigations were seemingly the motivating factors behind the rare joint news release, in addition to informing the public that the Surrey Police Service would take over as the force of jurisdiction on Nov. 29.
But there is a key question left unanswered: what does a modern Surrey Police Service look like in the year 2024 and beyond?
Hearing ‘the spurs on the stairs’
As someone who researches provincial policing affairs, I recently sat down for an hour-long, face-to-face chat with Surrey Police Chief Norm Lipinski. We discussed the history of policing in Surrey and his vision for a future-focused constabulary that could set an example for the rest of Canada.
Handing me a copy of a letter to staff that outlines a brief history, Lipinski pointed out that, although the Surrey Police Service was newly formed, there’s been municipal policing in Surrey since early in its history.
“The first constable was hired in 1887 and the first chief of police 1909,” he said.
That’s well-documented in provincial policing archives and historical police association writings.
In one example, an RCMP Veterans’ Association’s archival missive describes the story of the late Surrey Police Const. Paul Starek.
He was sitting in the old Surrey Municipal Police Office in April 1951 at around midnight when he “heard the sound of heavy footsteps and the jiggling of spurs coming up the front steps.” The Mounties were in the building, ready to take over Surrey. And they did.
The plebiscite vote of Surrey City Council was passed a few months earlier, in December 1950. The Surrey Municipal Police, which had overseen the area for more than half a century, would be disbanded and handed over to the RCMP.
While sitting in the office that night in 1951, Starek, then 24, was told to stay at his post and instruct the RCMP “how to police Surrey” in a rare example of municipal leadership in the federal force.
In its archival notes about this period entitled RCMP Take Over Surrey, the Veterans’ Association said: “It was quickly discovered that none of these (RCMP) members had worked in a municipal policing environment.”
A few decades later, this situation only grew worse for Surrey.
Surrey’s ‘Mountie problem’
In November 1985, Surrey Mayor Don Ross said on a live newscast special entitled “Surrey’s Mountie Problem” that the city now had the largest RCMP detachment in Canada. It remained so for the next 40 years.
Nonetheless, staffing issues and recruitment problems were endemic. Policing costs were rising. Crime was an issue in the November 1985 Surrey municipal election.
“What about going to municipal policing?” a reporter asked the mayor during the newscast. “You’re paying what? Ninety per cent (of RCMP policing costs)?”
Ross replied: “No, by 1990 we will be paying 90 per cent.”
After defending the RCMP, Ross then stated: “But I think when the costs get up to 90 per cent and more, we may well be looking at the alternative (municipal policing).”
Those costs and that alternative, for reasons I have previously explored, have arrived — and Lipinski sees a brighter future for Surrey, its citizens and its constables as a result.
Read more: Surrey, B.C., shows the rest of Canada what not to do when breaking away from the RCMP
The future of policing in Surrey
Lipinski, who holds an MBA and is a licenced lawyer, was adamant about his support for RCMP officers in our interview.
“I have a lot of time for the members of the RCMP … they go above and beyond,” he said.
Lipinksi previously served as an assistant RCMP commissioner, overseeing one division’s uniformed operations of 122 detachments and approximately 5,000 personnel. He left the RCMP in 2016 to become a deputy chief for the Delta Police Department, a career path that has culminated in his current post as Surrey’s chief constable since 2020.
In our discussion, Lipinski talked about his 32 years as a constable with the Edmonton Police Service, and said that building municipal police agencies is his passion.
“I want to further policing,” he said, adding: “Policing is not something done to a community, it is something done with a community.”
He said he aims to make his vision for a future-focused, community-centric Surrey Police Service a reality by integrating co-operative and modern approaches in technology and focusing on officer and community wellness, human dynamics, transparency and sound leadership.
These goals will be illustrated by uniforms with name tags in multiple languages, patrol vehicles marked as “community first” and a strong inner circle and oversight board that promotes advanced officer training programs and supports their chosen leadership.
Ditching the Red Serge in Canadian towns?
The federal government’s show of support for the Surrey force in the aftermath of the province’s Supreme Court ruling could influence decisions in other Canadian communities looking for policing alternatives.
For Canadian municipalities with RCMP contracts, the B.C. decision suggests it may be time to hang up the spurs and ditch the Red Serge. But community-centric policing models must allow municipal and provincial agencies to develop alongside their federal counterparts with support, not fear.
The next chapter for the Surrey Police Service involves a transfer of power by the RCMP, one that projects calm in times of conflict and unrest as the force undergoes a hiring streak.
Following the B.C. Supreme Court’s decision, it will be interesting to see if other Canadian communities soon follow suit.
Bryce J. Casavant receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). He currently lectures at Royal Roads University in the legal aspects of environmental management and legal philosophy/policing systems.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
