Editor:
The new Surrey Police force was to be instituted on April 1, 2021. To date, Surrey is far from having any police officers on the ground and the police budget is out of control.
A recent survey demonstrated 77 per cent of Surrey residents do not want a new police force. The mayor refuses to acknowledge the residents’ calls to keep the RCMP and even shuts down some of his own city councillors who try to bring in the issue of stopping this transition or having a referendum on this issue. The police board is not doing its job – members are not engaging with the community about this issue.
Mayor McCallum is the chairperson of the police board and I question if this is, in some way, a conflict of interest. Four councillors (Patton, Elford, Guerra, Nagra) consistently voted in favour with the mayor in regards to the Surrey Police force while at the same time the mayor will call other councillors’ motions out-of-order – Brenda Locke’s, for example – who attempted to bring in articles such as having a referendum in Surrey about the transition.
The mayor is not allowing residents to voice their concerns nor is he engaging with the public about this issue which will have a significant effect on the over 500,000 residents of Surrey.
Michele Bruce, Surrey