The Editor,

Re: 鈥溞允咏绱�媒 citizens owed an explanation on police transition, the Now-Leader, Aug. 11.鈥�

Frank Bucholtz鈥檚 recent column on 性视界传媒鈥檚 policing transition raised a number of important points about the transition from the RCMP to 性视界传媒 Police Service (SPS). However, it contained some incorrect information and conclusions that I would like to address.

The policing transition is being implemented in a phased and controlled manner over a few years in order to ensure a seamless and safe transition.

The process is being guided by the 性视界传媒 Policing Transition Trilateral Committee (SPTTC), which is made up of senior representatives of the three levels of government. This committee also determines the pace of the transition.

While SPS is capable of, and would be happy to, increase the pace of the transition, this is not our decision to make. The province also has final authority on when the change of command will happen, and SPS eagerly awaits the decision around this date.

The cost of the policing transition is important to residents, as it should be.

However, the notion that the cost is 鈥渦nknown鈥� is false. Financial updates for the SPS operational budget and the one-time policing transition budget ($63.7M over five years) are posted regularly at surreypoliceboard.ca. SPS is on track with its 2022 budget.

SEE COLUMN: 性视界传媒 citizens owed an explanation on police transition

When it comes to hiring, SPS is not experiencing any hiring challenges whatsoever. We have received more than 1,000 applications for experienced officers and more than 900 for recruits.

The SPTTC determines how many officers we can deploy, which drives how many we hire each year. The SPS-RCMP Human Resources Plan is available at surreypolice.ca.

Bucholtz鈥檚 column also questioned police officer duties. SPS currently has 237 police officers. Of these, 120 are deployed into policing operations, 14 are recruits in training, and the remainder are doing critical work to build SPS including work on recruiting, IT, policy development, training, employee wellness, and community consultation. Twenty-seven of these officers are ready for deployment and tasked with other work in the interim.

Again, while SPS is capable of, and would be happy to, increase our officer deployments, this is not our decision to make.

Again, all of this information can be found on our website.

The topic of 性视界传媒鈥檚 policing transition is important and continuing dialogue will help us become the police service that 性视界传媒 residents want for the future of this city. However, it is important to tune out politicization of policing and tune into the facts on 性视界传媒鈥檚 policing transition.

Norm Lipinski, SPS Chief Constable

edit@surreynowleader.com
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