RCMP to withdraw from Surrey, Police Board silent on transition

This November, the RCMP will be withdrawing all services from Surrey but, at the Oct. 22 Surrey Police Board meeting, the board did not address the transition.

The SPS had previously said 860 officers were needed to complete the transition — according to the SPS website, the municipal agency has 727 sworn in officers as of last month.

Cloverdale and Guildford are the final neighbourhoods the RCMP will be pulling out from and this time last year, the RCMP and SPS were still disagreeing about when the SPS would have enough officers to take over.

The Citizen reached out to the RCMP for comment about the transition and whether they might remain past November — they responded that the SPS Board was better suited to answer the inquiry.

Despite repeated attempts, the Surrey Police Board has not responded to the Citizen’s questions about the transition or how the SPS will take over the city with fewer officers than originally planned.

Last week, the Surrey Police Board appointed Todd Matsumoto as the new police chief. Newly-elected Mayor Doug McCallum called on the province to remove the board, which he said was “handpicked” by former Mayor Brenda Locke.

In 2024, after two years of Locke attempting to scrap the transition, the provincial government forced the city to move forward with the municipal force and agreed to $250 million in funding over 10 years to help complete the transition.

In a scramble to recruit enough people, the SPS has been offering large signing bonuses to experienced officers.

In July 2025, the agency had 522 officers and was offering signing bonuses of up to $25,000 and an additional $10,000 to help cover relocation fees for experienced officers not living in Metro Vancouver. The SPS is also offering up to $10,000 to help cover relocation expenses for experienced officers who do not live in Metro Vancouver.

In March, the SPS upped that signing bonus to $30,000 and embarked on an advertising campaign to get the word out.