Editor: Re: One-sided reporting, Dec. 4 letters.
Ron Eves’ letter to the editor caught my eye last week as another example of how misinformed some in our community are regarding our Surrey RCMP.
My support for our police agency is, of course, well known, but I, too, have learned a great deal more about our police force over this past year since starting the Keep the RCMP in Surrey campaign.
I do appreciate Ron’s comments, knowing differing opinions result in conversation that can lead to changing perspectives and views. With that in mind, it’s important to know that our Surrey RCMP have utilized a community policing model for more than 20 years. And Ron’s comparison of Delta to Surrey is completely misguided.
Surrey is a big city with big-city issues.
Every community requires a different model to respond to issues prevalent in their communities, and let’s face it, in reality, Surrey has five different communities or neighbourhoods; our Surrey RCMP identify them as districts and have had community offices and community response teams in each for years.
Beyond that, the model used by our police agency includes operations, the uniformed officers who patrol our city; investigative services, who are the detectives who investigate serious crimes in our city; proactive enforcement teams, who actively target those causing the most significant threat to our safety; and support services, the administrative staff who work behind the scenes in support of our officers.
I’ve seen this firsthand and know the model is sound, but what it’s lacking is the additional police resources to respond to the needs of our growing city.
Our Surrey RCMP does an amazing job with the resources they have and I truly believe their policing model fits the needs of our diverse city, but they need more officers, and more importantly, they need our support.
Ivan Michael Scott, co-ordinator, Keep the RCMP in Surrey campaign