Introduce the Mayor’s Integrated Public Safety Council
Rationale
The current City of Surrey Police Committee serves primarily as a means for the RCMP to report operational information back to the Mayor and Council.
The Committee currently gathers at the call of the Chair, which means that there is no consistent meeting schedule.
The first clause of Police Committee Procedure states that:
“The proceedings of the Police Committee meetings are to be conducted in public, unless otherwise specifically warranted,”
all meetings since November 28, 2008 where minutes are public (2012 and 2013 are missing from the City of Surrey website) have been unanimously voted to be held in a closed session under the guise that:
“…council consider that disclosure could reasonably be expected to harm the conduct of an investigation under or enforcement of an enactment.”
Proposal
The Police Committee will be replaced by a new entity – the Mayor’s Integrated Public Safety Council – which will include the following parties:
- RCMP
- City Council
- City Manager
- Fire Services
- By-Law & Licensing Services
- Planning & Development
- Parks, Recreation & Culture
- Engineering
- Surrey Crime Prevention Society
- Public Representatives
The Council will be governed by the following principles:
- Clarify perceptions and expectations of responsibility
- Provide sufficient information to accomplish assigned tasks
- Facilitate the coordination of people and materials to achieve specific objectives
- Furnish general directions, not only on what to achieve, but also on how to achieve it
- Ensure that accountability flows back to the Mayor, who serves as the Chair
Meetings will be held once a month, where each entity represented on the Council will report on relevant statistics, progress reports, operational issues and future initiatives. The focus will be on presenting and discussing high level information that will mainly deal with public safety integration between the various bodies represented on the Council.
All meetings will be open to the public (both in person and via live streaming over the Internet) with the exception of those that deal with personnel or legal matters.