Surrey Mounties head to wildfire zone despite calls for more local officers

SURREY (NEWS 1130) – Surrey’s top cop is defending the decision to send Mounties to the Interior to help with the wildfires, despite calls for more boots on the ground to help with the city’s gun violence.

There have been calls for Surrey RCMP to hire more officers, from groups such as the Newton Community Association. But there are actually fewer Mounties in Surrey right now because some of them have left town to help with the wildfires.

Surrey RCMP’s Officer-in-Charge Dwayne McDonald doesn’t want to say to exactly how many have left town, but he says there’s no reason to be concerned.

“First and foremost our responsibility is for policing services in the City of Surrey. So we would never deploy in a manner that would compromise that.”

“Surrey is a large detachment, we have numerous shift patterns and we have the ability to deploy members away and still maintain our operations.”

Although McDonald admits he now has another task on his plate – keeping up to date on what his Mounties are doing in the Interior.

“They’re always on my mind. Always keep an eye on it to make sure our resources are being managed properly, not that I have a doubt about that, but I am responsible for them,” he says.

McDonald adds Surrey won’t be paying the bill, either.

“It won’t be coming out of the municipal budget. The provincial team that’s responsible for the deployment will ultimately be responsible for funding and assisting with the fire suppression.

McDonald says this response from Surrey RCMP is nothing new, as his officers went to Alberta last year to help with the wildfire response in Fort McMurray.