After years of sharing an RCMP detachment with their neighbouring namesake city, the Township of Langley’s leaders have declared they want their own.
Two separate detachments — one each for the city and township — would better serve the needs of the “large and fast-growing municipality,” the township said in a Wednesday news release.
“We’ve heard loud and clear from residents that they want to see improved policing in the Township of Langley,” said Mayor Eric Woodward in the release.
“We are investing in public safety and the City of Langley is not. It is not fair to Township of Langley residents and taxpayers to have to subsidize policing in another municipality. We need to make a change.”
The Township of Langley has nearly 150,000 residents and a land mass of 316 square kilometres. The City of Langley has roughly 29,000 residents and a territory of 10 square kilometres.
Since 2009, the township said it has funded 33 new police officers for the force and plans to pay for another 10 over the next four years. The City of Langley has only put up the funds for one new officer.
The two municipalities entered into a capital and operations cost-sharing agreement for the Langley RCMP detachment in 1993, committing them to a proportionate share of spending on police. Nathan Pachal, mayor for the City of Langley, said his municipality has always upheld its part of the bargain.
“It’s based on a combination of population and crime statistics. For Langley city, we’ve been adhering to that contract and we’ve never breached that contract,” he told Global News on Wednesday.
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“If the township believes the agreement for policing in Langley is not equitable, I am 100-per cent committed to sitting down at the table with Mayor Woodward and hammering out a new contract for Langley integrated policing that is fair for both municipalities.”
As it stands, Langley township funds 158 RCMP positions and Langley city funds 54.
Pachal said he doesn’t have enough information on the details and costs of RCMP “de-integration” to definitively support or oppose it.
“I know that’s a long, complicated drawn-out process that will take years and years to complete.”
The township, meanwhile, said it’s one of the largest municipalities in B.C. without a police force that exclusively serves its residents.
“We have RCMP officers that we want to see in Walnut Grove and Aldergrove and Brookswood — they’re responding to calls for service and investigations in another municipality, the City of Langley,” said Woodward in an interview.
“We want to see them serving the residents and taxpayers that are paying for them.”
Woodward said the policing needs of the township are distinct from the city, and a more complete and dedicated compliment of officers is needed as population estimates project the township to expand to 200,000 people by 2040.
The township’s mayor and council have been mulling having their own RCMP detachment since late last year. They voted to explore the idea in December, with Woodward stating at the time that the “the cost to us, the disruption to us,” would be minimal since most of the Langley RCMP’s buildings are already in the township.
The township’s recent vote in favour of having its own RCMP detachment comes as B.C. grapples with a provincewide RCMP recruiting challenge and a shortage of officers in many regions.
Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth cited those concerns when he released a provincial recommendation urging nearby Surrey to adopt its own municipal police force, rather than bring the RCMP back as the police of jurisdiction.
The vote also comes about a year after an all-party committee reviewing B.C.’s Police Act recommended the province end its policing agreement with the RCMP and replace it with a single, provincial B.C. police service. Pachal said Wednesday that’s a “worthwhile conversation” to have.
In an interview, Farnworth noted that proposals such as Langley township’s “happen from time to time,” but it’s a distinct challenge from the hotly-contested police transition currently faced by Surrey. Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows, split their single RCMP detachment into two, he added.
“It is in essence, an internal restructuring. There are procedures that have to be followed, they do have to present a plan on how they would do it that works in terms of policing in both communities,” Farnworth said. “It’s not something that happens overnight, this really is, very much a first step.”
— with files from Janet Brown
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