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A Message from the Chief Constable


July/August 2025
I hope you are all enjoying this great summer. The highlight of our summer here at Surrey Police Service (SPS) has been the expansion of our policing service into the west side of South Surrey, including Semiahmoo First Nation. Inspector Darin Sheppard is the District Inspector for South Surrey and he and his team have received a very warm welcome in South Surrey. They have been engaging with many South Surrey organizations and businesses over the past few months and will continue to do so, as we learn more about the public safety concerns in the area.

This expansion means that you will now see SPS officers in Whalley/City Centre, Newton, and South Surrey (west), with the RCMP Surrey Provincial Operations Support Unit policing Guildford, Cloverdale, and South Surrey (east), as the phased policing transition continues. We hope to expand into the east side of South Surrey this fall. As always, the ways to contact police in Surrey remain unchanged in all areas. You can learn moreabout the policing transition at www.surreypolice.ca/policing-transition

This summer, we have been actively supporting local youth through a series of programs that have included our first SPS Student Police Academy (pictured above), Youth Basketball Camp, and Surrey Police Soccer Camp. Our Road Safety team has also been targeting impaired driving through CounterAttack road checks and illegal street racing through “Project Rogue Racers”.

On August 6th, we marked five years since the Surrey Police Board officially formed Surrey Police Service, and the journey began! In just five years, we have grown to over 1,000 employees and counting, we became Surrey’s police of jurisdiction, and we now have over 560 police officers proudly serving Surrey communities. Building a large police service from scratch has been and continues to be a truly unique challenge, and one that we are very proud to tackle each and every day.

Despite the ongoing transition, public safety in your neighbourhoods is our top priority. Over the past few months, there has been a marked increase in the reporting of extortion attempts and violent scare tactics targeting the South Asian community here in Surrey and in other communities across Canada. The actions of these criminals are reprehensible and cowardly. While hiding behind anonymous messages, they are using fear to prey on hardworking individuals in our communities. This is wholly unacceptable and putting an end to it is our top priority.

In June, we stood up our own Extortion Investigation Team to ensure that we have dedicated SPS officers working, full-time, on this matter. We have also joined the local Joint Force Operation, which is being led by the RCMP Lower Mainland District to tackle extortions. Furthermore, SPS is proactively engaging with community members to educate them on this this issue, and in June we attended a community forum and held a press conference with the Province of BC.

I understand that the public is eager to see arrests and charges against those responsible for these extortions. We are eager for that as well. However, it is important to understand that – just because you don’t see overt police activities on these files – does not mean that there is not significant work happening. When it comes to complex investigations like these, the investigative techniques we use are often done covertly.  We cannot risk compromising the leads we have through frequent public disclosure of the work we are doing. I do think that, collectively, police agencies in BC are making progress, but these are challenging files with many tentacles, requiring patience and diligent police work.

I also want to thank the community for reporting these incidents of extortion – each piece of information we receive is extremely helpful. Thank you for keeping the lines of communication open with us.

I wish you all a safe return to work and school this September.

Chief Constable Norm Lipinski