Mountie’s dad circulating petition to keep Surrey RCMP

SURREY (NEWS 1130) – Almost 1,800 people have signed a petition started by a man in South Surrey in hopes of keeping the city’s RCMP.

Ivan Scott, who has a son in the force, says he has shown up for every consultation event hosted by the city to talk about the new department and tell people about the benefits of keeping the Mounties.

While collecting signatures for his petition at the consultations, Scott says people are telling him they don’t want the Surrey municipal police force, even some who voted for Mayor Doug McCallum in the last election.

“This is one of the premiere police forces in the world,” he says. “Everybody around the world – I’m from Africa and I even, as a youngster, knew about the RCMP. It’s a revered police force that has an incredible reputation.”

Surrey City Councillor Linda Annis says people are concerned about the reduction in officers with the new plan.

The proposal — which was made public earlier this month — suggests with about 40 fewer actual police officers, a Surrey Police force would cost taxpayers about 11 per cent more than they currently pay for the RCMP.

“I think the community, by and large, is very supportive of the RCMP,” Annis says. “The RCMP has been doing the best job that they possibly can with limited resources. They’ve been asking for more officers for quite some time now and yet they’ve not been able to get them. We need more police officers, we need more boots on the ground and why not give the RCMP the opportunity to do the job that they do so well already.”

Scott says the transition money should instead be given to the RCMP for them to hire more officers for the city.

Another online petition has over 6,000 signatures.