Concerns about gang issues leads to discussion about RCMP vs. local police in Surrey

A community rally at Surrey city hall on June 13 on the issue of gang violence attracted thousands of people.

The rally was sparked by the apparent gang slayings of two teenagers, Jaskarn (Jason) Singh Jhutty, 16, and Jaskaran (Jesse) Singh Bhangal, 17.  Their bodies were found in a rural area south of Cloverdale on June 4.

Police have no evidence that the two were involved in gangs, and continue to search for the killer or killers. The deaths of the two young men have devastated their families and friends.

The large attendance at the Wake Up! rally indicates that many members of the community have been deeply shaken by this tragedy, and they are looking for answers. There is no simple solution, but one of the issues which was raised was the effectiveness of Surrey RCMP in dealing with the numerous instances of gang violence which have become a regular occurrence in Surrey.

Gurpreet Singh Sahota, organizer of the rally, said the Surrey RCMP detachment has too few officers to deal with crime in Surrey. He compared the just over 800 officers in Surrey (of whom 58 are on integrated teams, leaving 777 for work in the city) to almost 1,400 in Vancouver. The police-to-citizen ratio is one to 450 in Vancouver, while it is one to 620 in Surrey.

When considering that one-third of Surrey residents are 19 and under, and police often spend an inordinate amount of time and effort in dealing with crimes that are connected to younger people, the ratio may be even more skewed.

Sahota asked a question which has been raised periodically. Would Surrey be better off with its own police force, rather than a detachment of the RCMP?

Many of the new Surrey RCMP officers who have been added in recent years are recruits fresh from the training academy in Regina. Most of them come from other parts of the country. They are new to policing, and cannot possibly be expected to understand the community well.

The RCMP has little experience in operating large urban detachments, other than in B.C. It also has a well-established practice of moving its officers around from detachment to detachment. While this process is not as widespread and rigid as it used to be, it still means that many Surrey RCMP officers do not stay for long.

A local police force would cost Surrey taxpayers more. The Surrey RCMP does get some federal funding, so local taxpayers do not pay for the total cost of the detachment. However, that also means that officers from Surrey and other RCMP detachments are called in for federal duties from time to time, such as when there is a major international gathering, such as the recent G7 meeting in Quebec.

At one time, city police forces such as Vancouver’s were not well-respected. Training was limited, and the Vancouver Police in particular had a number of significant corruption issues.

That was many years ago. In the past 40 years, city police officers have obtained standardized and intensive training at the Justice Institute of B.C.  Delta has had its own police force for many years, and the police are highly-regarded. They have a policy of “no call too small” which residents are more than happy to pay higher taxes for.

Surrey council has resisted changing to an independent police force, largely due to cost.

Doug Elford, who is running for Surrey council with Surrey Community Alliance, said in an interview on CKNW's Simi Sara show on Monday that the Surrey motto could be "no call at all." It is certainly true that Surrey RCMP will not personally respond to many calls dealing with smaller issues, such as theft from properties.

Surrey RCMP officer in charge, Assistant Commissioner Dwayne McDonald, is planning to ask council for significant number of new officers. He also wants to give the gang enforcement unit more resources.

This is necessary in the short term. In the longer term, it would also make sense to do a detailed study comparing the RCMP and a local police force. Such a study should look into such issues at how long the average RCMP officer stays in Surrey, how often RCMP officers are called out of Surrey for federal or other RCMP duties and the differences between the training of RCMP officers and local police officers.
In the meantime, an interesting blog post by former Surrey RCMP officer Pete Cross is well worth a read. It raises many of the issues now being discussed. Interestingly, it was posted before the two young men were shot - showing that this concern goes far beyond one specific incident.