THE
NEWSPAPER.COM
THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013
A03
NEWS
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Surrey and Delta
‘Two-tiered’ policing is way to go, Watts says Deep roots with RCMP doesn’t mean city hall isn’t on lookout for efficiencies, mayor says Stories by Tom Zytaruk Now staff Twitter @tomzytaruk
Dianne Watts
Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts says she prefers a “two-tiered” approach to policing that would maintain neighbourhood-level contact between police and residents to having one big regional police force serve the entire Lower Mainland. That said, the mayor also indicated she’s not hung up on what police force polices her city – or the region, for that matter – as long as the model works. “I really don’t care what uniform they wear as long as the job gets done,” she said. The Now asked Watts where her loyalties lay after the Vancouver Police on Tuesday endorsed former judge Wally Oppal’s recommendation to establish a regional police force that would serve all of Greater Vancouver. Watts replied that she believes Surrey has been “well-served” by the RCMP. “I’m in favour of two-tiered policing.” What does that mean? Watts sees a need for some police officers to be “imbedded” in the community, to maintain neighbourhood connections, while homicide investigations and curbing gangsters should be under the bailiwick of a “co-ordinated” regional effort. This is more or less what we have now. But the relationship between the two tiers, Watts argues, requires better definition and needs to be strengthened because at present there’s no adequate “governance structure” overseeing it. According to a recent Angus Reid poll, 57
Lois Jackson
per cent of respondents surveyed support the creation of a single police force that would oversee the whole Lower Mainland. Watts doesn’t appear to be married to the idea of the RCMP policing Surrey ad infinitum, but if the city did part ways with the force it would be a difficult separation indeed considering the RCMP’s deep and broad roots in this city.
I don’t really care what uniform they wear as long as the job gets done.
Those roots are witnessed by the proliferation of RCMP E-division buildings in West Newton, Surrey being home to the nation’s largest RCMP detachment, and the fact E-division is currently transferring some 2,700 employees from throughout the Metro Vancouver into its new $1-billion headquarters building at 14200 Green Timbers Way. The RCMP has been policing Surrey since it replaced the Surrey Police Force on May 1, 1951. The force’s new contract, approved by city council last spring, will expire on March 31, 2032. When the contract was signed, annual RCMP costs in Surrey were roughly
$101 million, but that figure was expected to increase by 1.6 per cent over the next three years. The new contract, like the old, contains a clause where Surrey can opt out with two years’ notice. For her part, Watts sees no pressing need to replace the RCMP here. “I think they’ve done a good job in the City of Surrey,” she said. Still, city hall, she added, is “continually looking for efficiencies.” Surrey’s detachment is Canada’s largest and currently has 661 Mounties and roughly 250 support staff. Roughly 46 per cent of property tax collected in Surrey pays for the city’s RCMP service. Under the latest contract, the federal government pays for 10 per cent of the RCMP’s costs with the city picking up the remaining 90 per cent. Last week, Watts attended a national public safety summit – The Economics of Policing – in Ottawa, where politicians wrestled with the topics of rising police costs despite dropping crime rates, as well as sharing responsibility for those costs.
JACKSON LIKES STATUS QUO Meantime, Delta Mayor Lois Jackson is not in favour of a regional police force being created for the Lower Mainland. “Why would we take a lesser service than what we have? We have a great police force,” Jackson said of the Delta Police, a force that’s celebrating its 125th anniversary this year. “The system we have here is second to none. It works for us, and our crime stats show it.” The Delta Police co-operates with neighbouring police departments while at the same time maintaining a “no call too small” approach to local policing. “I don’t think anybody else does that,” Jackson noted. “There are lots of places to co-operate, but I think you have to remain in charge of your own house, so to speak.” tzytaruk@thenownewspaper.com
Delta chief says police must be better organizers
Jim Cessford
Delta Police Chief Jim Cessford says a regional police force would tend to benefit bigger cities at the expense of smaller ones. “I don’t agree with a general amalgamation,” Cessford said. “You tend to de-prioritize local concerns.” Why adopt a policing model that would cost more money to run but not give better service, he asked. “Why would we do this?” Rather, Cessford advocates the
creation of a specialized police agency, under one chief director, that would investigate gangs, organized crime, homicides “and those bigger issues” while leaving community based policing to the municipal and city police departments. “We need to do a better job of organizing,” he said. Cessford authored a position paper on the issue five years ago, entitled “From Integration to Organization:
A Renewed Model for Policing in British Columbia.” In it, he proposed that the provincial government set up a British Columbia Specialized Policing Agency that would handle big-issue criminal activity. Cessford also called on the government to develop an “overall” policing model that would promote the work of local police agencies and integrated units “by coordinating all efforts.”
Layar it and watch the ‘Now’ come alive
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oday’s issue of the Now may show you something you have never seen before. We are giving readers a new and exciting way to interact with the Now using an iPhone, iPad2 or Android phone or tablet. It’s called Layar and it uses your phone’s camera to trigger interactive content by simply scanning the newspaper page. Download the free Layar app from iTunes or the Google Play Store direct from your device by typing get.layar.com into your mobile web browser. It only takes a moment. Then look for the Layar icon throughout the paper. Start the app, point your phone’s camera to the page, tap the ‘scan’ button and watch for on-screen buttons to emerge. That will give you an extended experience to watch videos, share stories via email, Twitter and Facebook, view photos and even directly buy items, book appointments and service calls, all conveniently at your fingertips. For example, on page 19, you can use Layar, you can donate to the Surrey Food Bank with the touch of one button – or see a map to find out exactly where the food bank is. And on our sports pages, Layar will bring photos to life. Photographer Gord Goble shot many photos from basketball and curling events but we could only print one from each event. Use Layar and you can see the rest. In fact, we are so excited about Layar that we are giving away cash to readers who use it – look inside to see how you can enter our contest. We’ll do more Layar projects each issue to enhance the stories we tell about Surrey, White Rock and North Delta. Enjoy it and, as always, give us your thoughts. The Now