Laura Tester - Red Deer Advocate Published: December 26, 2009:
The cost of creating a municipal police force was much too big for one British Columbia city, which, like Red Deer, pondered the merits of replacing the Mounties. Surrey, a city of 465,000, conducted a one-year, $150,000 study more than 10 years ago to see if a municipal police force was worth starting up. According to information published in the Surrey Leader in 2001, start-up costs would total $3 million and annual operating costs would be nearly $2 million more than the RCMP contract. Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts said the RCMP allows the municipality to share policing resources with other communities throughout B.C. This makes it cheaper for the municipality. The RCMP were also becoming more responsive to the city’s needs and in fact after the study was done, decided to have a minimum five-year stay for its officers. “We’re the largest RCMP detachment in the country and it works very well for us,” Watts said. There are no plans to do any policing review, Watts added.
The City of Red Deer recently announced it would do a policing review next year, including a review of the RCMP contract. An informal online poll done by the Advocate last week showed a high level of support to keep the RCMP in Red Deer, a city of almost 90,000 people. A total of 96 readers, or 34 per cent, voted in favour of a municipal force versus 184 votes or 65 per cent against. Supt. Brian Simpson of the Red Deer City RCMP has said he anticipates the RCMP will stay in Red Deer following a policing review.
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