Of the 28 municipalities in British Columbia’s Lower Mainland, 22 are served by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police under a  federal-provincial-municipal contract. Six  cities have local police departments governed by citizen boards.  We’re talking about Abbotsford, the City of Vancouver, West Vancouver, Port Moody, Delta and New Westminster.

The latest B.C. Government survey of police operations finds about 2,040 Mounties  doing local policing in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley District compared with 1,940 city police.  There’ve been recent concerns about the RCMP on several scores; the city police departments and their citizen boards offer an alternative model for organizing and governing police services. Continue reading →