RICHMOND (NEWS1130) – Richmond could be the first city in BC to opt out of its contract with the RCMP.

“The most likely possibility, if we wanted to make a change, would be to have an independent police force that contracts out some specialized services like homicides,” explains Mayor Malcolm Brodie.

Port Moody does something similar; it has its own police force but pays the Vancouver Police Department to handle murder investigations. The VPD is also given an officer from Port Moody as part of the agreement.

Forming Richmond’s own police department is one of several options city staff have been ordered to explore. Brodie says the arrangement makes more sense than another proposal: forming a joint police force with another city, such as the VPD.

“They have a very good force, but we would be a very small component of a very large force,” says Brodie.

“If we were going to go with some sort of amalgamation, I think that a smaller centre would be more likely. After [yesterday's] discussions, the flavour is for an independent police force, but with a contract with some other force to provide specialized services.”

Council is expected to receive a report that will recommend one of the options sometime early next year.

Richmond signed a 20-year contract with the RCMP earlier this year, but Brodie isn’t happy with the deal. “There were some very important issues that were never resolved when we were being pressured to sign the RCMP contract, and finally we buckled to that pressure and signed.”

“There’s a building and the cost is something like a billion dollars over its lifetime and the RCMP is looking for cities to pay the lion’s share of that building. We don’t know who is going into that building or what the arrangements are,” he adds.

Richmond can opt out of its contract with the RCMP after two years.