In his fourth video update on the extortion situation, Surrey Police Chief Norm Lipinski said that Surrey continues to see a decline in the number of extortion reports and the amount of extortion related violence.
“In fact, in the month of February, there was just one shots fired extortion incident in our city compared to 10 in January. So far in March, there have been zero,” he said.
But he added that while the extortion threats are declining, some Surrey residents and business owners are still receiving threats with four threats coming in so far this month.
“I want to thank the officers and civilian staff working around the clock on this issue and our policing partners at the Delta Police Department, CFSCU, RCMP air services, the BCRCMP, and other agencies that have provided resources to work with our project assurance team,” he said.
Despite this encouraging decline in extortions and associated violence, Chief Lipinski said that the police and the community must remain steadfast in commitment to deter these crimes. “I ask you to continue to report extortions to police. Also, if you have information, please call us. SPS has officers trained in dealing with sensitive information and Canada has laws that protect the confidentiality of people who provide information to the police. Please call our extortion tip line at 236-485-5149 if you have any information.”
In the video he also updated about the expansion of SPS policing into Cloverdale and upcoming Vaisakhi parade.
The transition is happening on April 1st. “As you know, SPS currently serves the areas of Wall-E city center, Newton, and South Surrey. With the addition of Cloverdale, just the Guilford, Fleetwood area remains to be transitioned from the RCMP to SPS.”
“We are preparing for the annual Kulsa Day Vasaki parade on Saturday, April 18. This is a tremendously important community event and one of the world’s largest Vasaki parades. Well over half a million people will be in attendance. We are working hard to ensure this is a safe, family-friendly event for all. We will have officers in the parade and officers providing security on the ground and in the air with our drones,” he said.