Policing overtime costs place Surrey over-budget by millions

An auditor’s report released Tuesday found the City of Surrey’s policing budget was strained by a $4.6-million overrun for overtime during a four-year period.

The audit, carried out by the Office of the Auditor General for Local Government of B.C., probed Surrey’s performance in managing policing agreements and budget oversight.

The report was largely positive, but identified four areas for the city to improve: The training of newly elected members of its policing committee, policing-related planning, its ability to assist in determining appropriate levels of staffing and its work with the RCMP to manage costs by reducing overtime.

“Overall, we found that the City of Surrey pays close attention to both financial and operational results, and importantly, that this focus has moved the city towards a results-based approach to the RCMP’s delivery of policing services in Surrey,” said the report, based on an audit conducted between 2010 and 2013.

But according to the report submitted by acting AG for local government Arn van Iersel, Surrey had overtime labour cost overruns in three of the four years reviewed totalling $4.6 million.

Mayor Linda Hepner, who was elected in November 2014, said she was “generally pleased” with the audit’s findings and said her council has already put a number of its recommendations into motion.

She attributed some of the extra overtime to a spike of 25 homicides in the city in 2013, up from nine the year before.

This year’s string of shootings involving the low-level drug trade will “quite likely again be a strain” on the budget as extra resources are allocated to policing, said Hepner, adding council will continue to devote resources as needed regardless of whether overtime work is required.

“Quite frankly, public safety will always trump cost issues,” she said.