The people of Surrey, in turfing Mayor Doug McCallum from office, have opened the way for the RCMP to be “rehired” or “re-engaged” as the police force for BC’s largest city. The council appears to be making the point that re-engaging the RCMP, as opposed to having their own police force, will save hundreds of millions of dollars. Of course this decision has been at the forefront of Surrey politics for half a decade.
I believe that the citizens will come to regret this move in the not-too-distant future. First, the cost of retaining Canada’s national police force will no doubt be higher than they are touting. However, the cost should not be the main concern. The real reason that the decision is regrettable is that the RCMP is an incompetent, corrupt and dysfunctional organization that has continually failed the people of Canada. The worst and most recent example is the fuck up in Nova Scotia, where a serial killer was left to murder 22 people in several different locations. They have also consistently failed to disrupt the drug wars that have left many people dead. The reports on each of these killings indicate that the murdered people were “known to police”, which I think means that they were drug dealers so don’t bother yourself worrying about it.
So in saving money, the people of Surrey will be wasting lives; that’s what I think and, sadly, I am liable to be correct. “Money is the root of all evil.”