On Tuesday, as the RCMP's Integrated Homicide Investigation Team and Integrated Forensic Investigation Service scoured a property on Steveston Highway following the city's first homicide of the year, Assistant Commissioner Norm Lipinski of the RCMP presented his annual report on five Lower Mainland integrated police teams to the city's Community Safety Committee at Richmond City Hall.
"The presentation given to us seems to indicate that the costs are under control," said committee chair Coun. Derek Dang.
But still at issue, according to Dang, is exactly how the growing integrated teams will divide costs among municipalities for their services.
The Lower Mainland's five integrated teams serve 29 communities, including Richmond. But when crime is dispersed unevenly throughout the region, exactly who pays for what is a difficult formula to determine, according to Dang.
"We had our first murder a few days ago and Surrey has multiple amounts of murders and, I believe, ultimately what happens is there is some spill over and that we end up paying a bit of that bill.
"The cost sharing has been somewhat problematic," he said.
Complicating matters is the new $1 billion Green Timbers E-Division headquarters in Surrey. Last year B.C. municipalities such as Richmond signed a 20-year policing agreement with the RCMP and may now be hit with a substantial portion of the facility's bill, as the federal government, province and municipalities continue to negotiate the finalities.
"There are lots of hidden costs involved that need to be hashed over," Dang said.
Lipinski said cost-saving measures are being looked at. For instance, as other municipalities with their own police services, like Delta and New Westminster, sign-up for integrated services the costs will be more dispersed. Also, Lipinski noted the RCMP is reviewing how it can hire private security guards to block off crime scenes instead of having to pay an officer overtime.
Last fiscal year (2012/13) Richmond paid $2.9 million for integrated services. Over a five-year span, costs have risen, on average, by 1.7 per cent. Total costs between municipalities are generally dispersed at the same ratio as their populations.
The highest costs are associated with IHIT, for which the city paid about $1 million (eight per cent of the total IHIT share per municipality) in the 2012/13 fiscal year.
In 2013 the city had zero homicides, according to Richmond RCMP. Meanwhile Surrey had 16 IHIT investigations in 2012/13, for which it paid $3 million.
Since the 2009/10 fiscal year, of the total 160 IHIT cases, Richmond has seen just seven investigations. Surrey had 61 cases.
