Editor,
Re: New West councillors: Other cities would welcome Surrey's police funds
As a Surrey resident, and criminologist, I have both lived through and studied the impacts of the policing transition fiasco directly.
So it is with much dismay that I read about New Westminster councillors musing about using the new $150 million (at least) transition funding promised to Surrey for policing in other municipalities, if Surrey walks away from it.
Community health, safety and wellbeing are not built and sustained through policing. Yet the community resources that most contribute to broader wellbeing are consistently underfunded, while hundreds upon hundreds of millions of public dollars flow to police.
We have experienced this in Surrey. Projects, from ice rinks to community centres to an Indigenous healing lodge, were delayed or suspended because of the police transition. Hundreds of millions went into the transition, and it would cost hundreds of millions more to wind it down.
New Westminster councillors might be right that the $150 million should go to other cities. But it should not be viewed strictly through the narrow lens of policing. They should be thinking about real community care services—whether youth programs, mental health care, supports for unhoused people.
Numerous criminological studies show no correlation between police funding or officer increases and reduced crime. But there are correlations with community-based resources and reduced crime. This is where new public monies need to go.
Dr. Jeff Shantz
Department of Criminology
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Surrey
