Surrey B.C. has a policing problem. As the city grew and crime increased, the question of whether Surrey should have its own dedicated police force became a significant civic issue. As of this writing, the future of policing in Surrey is unclear. There are two police forces working in Surrey and it’s unclear whether and what duties the new municipal police have taken on. This can impact how DUIs are handled in Surrey.
Like many municipalities, Surrey relied on the RCMP for policing via a series of government agreements. Many felt that Surrey wasn’t getting the policing service for which they paid. The City set out to create their own police force. Following a change of civic government, the City now wants to revert to the RCMP. Meanwhile, the provincial government wants Surrey to follow through and complete the transition from the RCMP to their own police force.
There is confusion on the streets and in the police forces themselves. Right now there is a Surrey Police Service, a small group of officers, and the Surrey RCMP both policing the roads of this large and important city. And this causes some funny issues concerning DUIs.
Roving police vs. roadblocks
One major concern is having the human resources to put officers on the road. Although there is always lots of talk about CounterAttack roadblocks, we see when resources are tight, the first thing that seems to be cut is DUI roadblocks. Of course, because we defend so many IRPs, we know when the police set up a roadblock and issued some IRPs. We will very often get a few calls about it and we talk to the officers when we see them in court.
It seems that there have been no CounterAttack roadblocks in Surrey for months. One is left to speculate why this is, but it seems likely that neither force has the resources or desire to pay to staff a roadblock with a bunch of police officers for many hours.
That doesn’t mean that there isn’t enforcement. What we are seeing is police officers staking our privately run liquor stores in Surrey and pulling over people after they make their purchases. These are often the most problematic investigations. It is more common for the police to not fully consider the reliability of breath tests in these circumstances, and very often we see the police lacking a good reason to have made the stop and the breathalyzer demand.
If you can’t come to an agreement regarding who is going to pay for a roadblock, and you want to keep your numbers up, the answers it seems, is to target people who go to the liquor store.
Rogue police in DUI investigations
The vast majority of DUIs in British Columbia are 90-day Immediate Roadside Prohibitions (IRPs) and this holds true for Surrey. When an officer issues an IRP DUI, they need to submit a report and several required documents to the tribunal registry that deals with these hearings. We read dozens of these reports every month and certain patterns start to become clear. In Surrey, the pattern is dominated by curiosities from the two organizations.
We noticed a significant departure in certain parts of DUI investigations with one of the two organizations that are completely unexplained and reveal a major failure in communication. We have been left to speculate about what’s going on. We don’t want to go into details because it may impact matters we are dealing with, but it seems that some officers are doing something very different and departing from the standard way to conduct these investigations.
It’s a mess, and what a mess it is! At this point, we have no way to predict how this will end. The Surrey police problem is going to linger in one way or another for years to come it seems. It will be interesting to see if the Surrey police put training on pause and implement cost-cutting measures now that the City is paying for it directly. Will either police force set up to take the lead in DUI investigations as the busy summer season comes upon us?
One thing is certain, you don’t want to put yourself in jeopardy hoping that the policing difficulties will somehow help you avoid a DUI.
If you run into trouble while driving in Surrey, give us a call. We defend all driving offences and we’re a phone call away.