“This chronic understaffing is spreading the gap in the police to population ratio. This makes Surrey already less safe than if should be. Surrey RCMP has 843 experienced Police officers today. The Mayor’s Police Transition Report states that it is acceptable to have only 80% of their authorized strength on Day 1 of the Surrey Police Department (SPD) with the hopes that more officers will eventually join them,” Jack Hundial said.

By DESIBUZZCanada Staff

SURREY – Rebel Councillor and former cop Jack Hundial says Surrey mayor Doug McCallum’s local police force plan is just not up to what is required in a growing city that already needs more cops and not a lesser and less effective version of the RCMP.

“Currently, Surrey detachment has a complement of 843 trained officers, despite Council not approving 6 new position in the 2018 budget and 12 new positions in the 2019 budget. Surrey still needs 30 new officers today to keep pace with the population growth of 800 new residents each month,” Hundial said in a press release.

“This chronic understaffing is spreading the gap in the police to population ratio. This makes Surrey already less safe than if should be. Surrey RCMP has 843 experienced Police officers today. The Mayor’s Police Transition Report states that it is acceptable to have only 80% of their authorized strength on Day 1 of the Surrey Police Department (SPD) with the hopes that more officers will eventually join them,” Hundial added.

The former Safe Surrey member, who bolted along with two fellow rebels from the party that brought them to power, said Even if SPD was able to hire all 461 brand new patrol officers to start the SPD, they are prepared to go with only 379 on patrol (pg. 167 of the report) at a higher cost to taxpayers.

“According to the Mayor’s Police Transition Report the SPD will also have significantly fewer supervisory personnel. With up to 461 new officers on patrol, it’s predictable that the new police department will have more problems and challenges than a typical police department. This report fails to acknowledge or mitigate this risk,” Hundial said.

“In my experience as a police officer of 25 year and as a front-line police supervisor in Surrey, less supervision leads to increased taxpayer liability and less effective public safety.”

There will be unseen monetary costs as well, he said. The Mayor’s Report does not do a proper cost analysis on what Surrey taxpayers would be on the hook for as part of terminating the RCMP. Additional cost to Surrey taxpayer that are missing from this report include: what the cost will be for civil litigation payouts, severance, and grievance payouts, plus overall insurance costs. Currently, this is included. All these costs will reduce the amount of resources available for public safety and put less resources

Hundial assured that as a result of the Mayor canceling the Public Safety Committee, he will be periodically providing releases on issue of public safety in relation to the Police Transition Report.