Surrey police transition chaos emerges as fall municipal election issue

Hamish Telford, a political scientist at the University of the Fraser Valley: 'There will be the diehards who still oppose this and want the RCMP back, there'll be others who support the Surrey police force, and I think most voters actually would just like this to be put in the rear view mirror.' Photo by Handout /PNG

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With chaos resurfacing in the long-running transition to a municipal police force, policing is likely to be front-and-centre again in this fall’s municipal election, say political observers.

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The fallout continues from the abrupt decision by the Surrey police board to remove Surrey Police Chief Const. Norm Lipinski, who had led the transition since 2020 and had his contract renewed for another three years just last fall.

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Several mayoral candidates have raised questions around the timing, the lack of reasoning for the firing, the severance cost that has not been revealed, and the effect on the Surrey Police Service’s ability to recruit much-needed new members.

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Hamish Telford, a political scientist at the University of the Fraser Valley, said the inner machinations of the removal of the police chief will go over the heads of most voters, but the police transition is a lingering issue that will continue to be a concern in the fall election.

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He said that is certainty so given Doug McCallum is running for mayor again, almost as if the police transition is being fought over again.

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McCallum was the mayor who led the move to create the municipal force, but lost to Locke, who campaigned to retain the RCMP in the 2022 election. McCallum is among five candidates that have already said they will challenge Locke this fall.

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“There will be the diehards who still oppose this and want the RCMP back, there’ll be others who support the Surrey police force, and I think most voters actually would just like this to be put in the rear view mirror,” said Telford.

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The transition to the new force, which started more than six years ago, has been acrimonious and has moved slowly, with completion not expected for another year or more. The new force is still short about 175 officers from its full complement of 835.

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An 18-month battle to halt the transition only ended in 2024 when Locke and her council agreed to a $250-million payment from the province to assist with the costs of the transition. That was after the mayor and council lost a B.C. Supreme Court attempt to block the transition that the B.C. government wanted to proceed.

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It remains unclear whether Lipinski’s departure is being classified as a resignation or a firing.

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Board member Hanne Madsen has said the board decided to “terminate” Lipinski. But another source told Postmedia News that Lipinski was placed on leave following a meeting Monday morning with Surrey police board members and that he was given until Thursday at 4 p.m. to resign or he would be terminated without cause.

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Following the decision to remove Lipinski, and the resignation of two police board directors, including the chair, McCallum has accused Locke of a “takeover” of the police board.