Surrey Police Board begins search for new chief constable

The Surrey Police Board has begun recruiting a new chief constable for Surrey Police Service and has hired Vancouver-based PFM Executive Search to run the process. The position carries an annual salary of $336,000 to $391,000, plus a competitive total rewards package.

Board executive director Jason Kuzminski said in a Sept. 2 news release that the nationwide search would begin immediately. The posting is available on the Executive-Opportunities page of the PFM Executive Search website.

According to the posting, the successful candidate will lead SPS through completion of Surrey’s policing transition from the RCMP to SPS, while helping establish the force as a trusted, high-performing and innovative municipal police service. The candidate will need to work with the Police Board, municipal and government leaders, employees, unions, associations, community partners and the media, and bring people together around a shared vision for public safety in Surrey.

Todd Matsumoto was appointed interim chief constable after former founding chief Norm Lipinski was removed in June, a decision followed by the resignations of two board directors. Matsumoto was the third deputy chief constable hired by SPS. Before joining the service, he was an inspector with the New Westminster Police Service, where he had worked since 1993; at SPS, he led the Investigative Services Bureau.

The Surrey Police Board faced criticism after approving a governance committee recommendation on June 17 to limit what the chief constable and other senior executives could say to media and stakeholders about police governance, oversight, board direction, organizational priorities, and decisions involving the provincial government and city hall. The recommendation, set out in a report titled Executive Communications on Intergovernmental Affairs and Governance Matters, said its purpose was to align the board and management through comment guidelines and to prohibit comments on intergovernmental affairs. Its principles included informing rather than influencing or criticizing governance decisions.

Surrey-Cloverdale independent MLA Elenore Sturko, a former Surrey Mountie, said compensation across SPS, from the chief constable to constables, was significantly higher than RCMP pay. She said that concerned her as a representative of taxpayers, particularly as many city council candidates have said they would not raise taxes; in her view, that could require cuts to other services to accommodate the higher costs.