ASSISTANT Commissioner Brian Edwards, Officer in Charge of Surrey RCMP, on Tuesday disputed claims by Surrey Police Union that he deliberately omitted critical information on policing levels at Monday’s Surrey City Council meeting.
In a statement in which he exposed his petty politics vis-a-vis former mayor Doug McCallum who won a massive mandate for replacing the RCMP in Surrey, he accused his opponents of making “significant efforts to create fear and misrepresent information publically, at the expense of both public and police officer safety,” adding that “today’s release by the Surrey Police Union which was then supported by Doug McCallum are prime examples.”
What exactly was the need to mention “which was then supported by Doug McCallum” if Edwards was indeed trying to rise above his petty politics that has vitiated the atmosphere in Surrey with his rude and crude pro-RCMP supporters that he has encouraged?
In any case, if you can still believe what the RCMP says when it comes to Surrey policing, here is what Edwards claims:
“It is not common practice for police to release exact breakdowns of operational resources on any given shift. What I can say is that the statistics and numbers provided by the SPU are inaccurate, and in my view, are deliberately intended to mislead the public. I call on the Surrey Police Service Executive to expend all efforts to discontinue this harmful rhetoric from the Surrey Police Union.
“Surrey Detachment is funded for 734 positions, and is currently exceeding that target. On any given shift, on top of the Frontline resources, we have plainclothes investigation units, uniform gang and bike/foot patrols, traffic officers, uniform community policing officers, as well as a team of on call Serious Crime investigators that are called in during a major incident. We also receive significant operational support from the Lower Mainland Integrated Teams for forensics, police dogs, air services, homicide investigations and emergency response.
“Our Watch Duty Officers have 24/7 control to manage resources by utilizing the above noted teams. The ability to quickly scale resources has been key in maintaining an effective and efficient police service through numerous challenges including the COVID-19 pandemic, with no increase to our establishment since 2018.
“In regards to our Operational Communications Centre (OCC), we have been impacted by a staff shortage of call takers and dispatchers, like many agencies across BC and Canada. Our OCC staff are City of Surrey employees, and we are working closely with the City to mitigate the affects of these shortages and we will soon have more hires in place. 911 calls have not been impacted, and for non-emergency calls, these have been prioritized or directed to a radio room Constable; alternatively the public can make use of our online reporting tools when necessary.”
The way the RCMP went after McCallum regarding the public mischief case against him in their unethical and unprofessional manner that backfired on them makes it very difficult to believe anything they say on Surrey policing.
