Senior VPD officers to give Surrey advice about transitioning to a municipal police force

The cities of Surrey and Vancouver have signed a memorandum of understanding for senior Vancouver police officers to provide “advice” to Surrey, as it moves to a municipal police force from the RCMP.

Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum says the high-level technical advice from senior VPD officers has a price tag.

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“We’ve estimated it will be between $100,000 and $150,000,” he said.

McCallum says the advice will go into the report to be presented to the solicitor-general in about four to six weeks time.

It’s the solicitor-general who has to approve the change.

“We’re well into it,” McCallum said. The city has hired Curt Griffiths, a criminology professor at Simon Fraser University, to write a report about the change. “In fact, a good part of the report’s already been written.”

Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart is pleased with the deal to share VPD expertise.

“I’m very keen to support the mayor of Surrey on this and look forward to seeing what the next steps are.”

Stewart says the Police Board and Vancouver council agreed to help Surrey.