Conservative Public Safety Critic and Surrey South MLA Elenore Sturko has called on Premier David Eby and his government to reinstate the Surrey Police Board and restore local law enforcement accountability to the city.The board was shut down on November 16, 2023 at the request of Eby and now-former minister of public safety Mike Farnworth, and has not convened since."The transition to a municipal police force was supposed to provide more local accountability," says Sturko said. "David Eby shut down our Surrey Police Service Board and appointed in his own hand-picked administrator, removing local accountability and centralizing control in Victoria."She accused Eby and current solicitor general Gary Begg of having "created a situation where Surrey doesn't have a local voice in policing," arguing that, "it's time for the Premier to reinstate the police board and return the local accountability that Surrey residents were promised."In November 2023, Farnworth announced that, "all members of the Surrey Police Board have been suspended and they will resume their roles when the administrator's appointment concludes." On November 29, 2024, the Surrey Police Service took over for the Surrey RCMP to become the city's main law enforcement agency. "There has been no clarity as to when that work will be completed," Sturko lamented, "or any clarity as to what stage the transition must advance to before David Eby relinquishes his control and allows the residents of Surrey to have the local accountability the NDP promised."
