Surrey mayor says there will be public consultation on move to municipal police force

There have been many calls for public consultation as the City of Surrey considers moving from the RCMP to a civic police force.

Now, Mayor Doug McCallum says there will be public consultation if the provincial government approves the municipal force.

However, he says it won’t be asking the public if they want a civic force but it will be about engaging the public about the coming changes.

McCallum says the city is in the process of finishing up the report on policing for the solicitor-general.

He says council will get a copy of it before it’s shipped off to Victoria, and once the province gets the report, it will also be available for the public.

McCallum says following that, public consultation will begin.

“We will, after the report is released or gets to the province and released to the public, we will be going out for public consultation on the ways we are going to bring the implementation to Surrey.”

McCallum says he the public consultation period will likely run for about two to three weeks, and meetings will be held at various community centres.

He says he hasn’t seen the report but promises it’ll be very clear how much more a municipal force will cost versus the RCMP.