Surrey Police Service (SPS) has created a new operational unit to combat impaired driving in the city. The SPS Impaired Driving Unit will bring enforcement and expertise to improve road safety in Surrey. This new unit will be initially staffed by five officers but will grow to a contingent of seven later in 2025. Impaired driving creates dangers on our roadways and causes devastation to individuals, families, and communities.  SPS will continue to collaborate with our law enforcement and community partners to reduce the incidences of impaired driving and to get those drivers and their vehicles off the road. 

All the officers in the unit will be qualified Drug Recognition Experts (DRE), which will allow them to assess drivers impaired by drugs as well as alcohol. They also are trained Breath Test Analysis (BTA) operators which means they are qualified to gather evidence needed for Criminal Code impaired driving investigations.

The SPS Impaired Driving Unit will support and assist Frontline officers with complex and serious impaired driving investigations as well as pro-actively interdicting and removing impaired drivers from the roadways themselves. The unit’s schedule will emphasize evening and weekend coverage.

“Road safety is an integral part of public safety. Surrey Police Service launched the Impaired Driving Unit to target offenders, who continue to create risk for other drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians by driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs in Surrey,” said Inspector Earl Andersen, Officer in Charge of SPS’s Road Safety Section. “There have been too many lives lost and too many families devastated by impaired driving. This new dedicated unit will allow us to focus on impaired driving enforcement year-round, as we work to reduce these highly preventable and often tragic incidents here in Surrey.”

The SPS Impaired Driving Unit is a new and important component in a comprehensive traffic and road safety strategy that includes proactive enforcement, prevention and education, and collision investigation.