Surrey is too big for just 835 officers : Councillor Linda Annis
Surrey: Surrey Councillor Linda Annis says BC’S second largest city is just too big for 835 officers to patrol effectively. Surrey, the size of Vancouver, Richmond and Burnaby combined, has less than three officers per square kilometre while Vancouver has 12.
“We’re spending a lot of time and energy on creating our own police department, but the simple fact is that whether we have the RCMP, or our own Surrey Police Department, we’re short about 300 officers for a city of our size with so much geography to cover,” said Annis, who is also head of Metro Vancouver Crime Stoppers. “Policing in Surrey needs more officers and when the Mayor failed to add the minimal number of officers in the last budget it only made the situation worse. Not adding officers was short-sighted and frankly it put public safety at risk.” Annis, who has been pushing for more transparency around the plan for a Surrey Police Department, said taxpayers should expect some sticker shock.
“There is absolutely no way a Surrey Police Department is going to cost just 10 per cent more than the RCMP,” noted Annis. “The only way you can get to that number is hiding the real costs, and that’s no way to create a police department for this city. Our population is 85 per cent of Vancouver’s population where they have about 1400 officers. Based on that math, we should have almost 1200 officers here in Surrey, and probably more when you consider our geographic size. We’re almost three times the size of Vancouver, making Surrey a big place to get around.” Annis said taxpayers need to know the costs of making changes in policing, and they need to be told the truth about what our city really needs in terms of police resources.
“The simple fact is, a Surrey Police Department that doesn’t have a major increase in officers is not likely to make us safer.,” added Annis. “The real issue is the number of police, not the colour of their uniforms.”
Annis wants complete transparency and full public involvement in deciding the future of policing in Surrey.
“Our city is a safe city, in spite of these occasional spikes in violent crime, and we’re growing by 300 families every month,” explained Annis. “Add all that to the sheer size of Surrey and you can see the real issue is the need for more officers.”