Surrey Police Service says \u2018hiccup\u2019 in plans to takeover East Surrey won\u2019t derail transition<\/p>\n
Published 11:30 am Wednesday, March 4, 2026<\/p>\n
After an initial \u201chiccup,\u201d the Surrey Police Service says Cloverdalians have nothing to worry about when the SPS takes over East Surrey in less than a month.<\/p>\n
Called \u201cDistrict 4\u201d by the SPS, they will officially begin policing the Cloverdale neighbourhood April 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could be termed a bit of a hiccup, but I just wanted to let everybody know that we are fully committed to this transition continuing,\u201d said Darin Sheppard, an inspector with the SPS.<\/p>\n
That \u201chiccup\u201d was the SPS\u2019s planned strategy and preparation to take over the south part of Cloverdale in four weeks and the north part at the end of July. However, the province told them they are taking over all of Cloverdale April 1, so the SPS has had to pivot and come up with a new transition plan.<\/p>\n
Currently looking after the South Surrey area (District 5), Sheppard will be tasked with running Cloverdale come April.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very excited about that,\u201d he told members and guests of the Cloverdale BIA Feb. 24 as he spoke during the BIA\u2019s AGM, held at the Clova Theatre. \u201cI absolutely love the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sheppard said he\u2019s met many people in the East Surrey area over the last couple of years and has developed many good relationships with both people and organizations.<\/p>\n
He also wanted to assuage any concerns residents may have in terms of public safety. He said the SPS commitment to residents in Surrey and Cloverdale remains unchanged.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are working diligently behind the scenes to find ways to close some of the gaps that we\u2019ve now identified given that the initial transition was supposed to be the south half of Cloverdale on April 1 and the remaining half at the end of July,\u201d Sheppard explained. \u201cWe are working diligently to ensure this transition continues in the most expeditious manner possible, without any risk to public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said when they do takeover, the crisis intervention teams, or CITs (the police mental health units), will be in place and ready to serve the community.<\/p>\n
He noted the biggest hurdle he anticipates when the SPS takes over District 4 will be manpower. With officers diverted to tackle the extortion crisis, they will have to put some initiatives on hold and get to them later. He added public needn\u2019t worry about safety; there will be enough boots on the ground to ensure policing needs are well taken care of.<\/p>\n
Sheppard said there will be six sergeant teams working in District 4. Operationally, Cloverdale will have three different teams working during the course of the day, a morning shift, an afternoon shift, and an evening shift.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be adequate resources for that,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll definitely be out in the community. Expect to see more police cars out patrolling, more officers walking foot patrol, and working with the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sheppard noted the SPS will have a dedicated community policing station in Cloverdale that will eventually be open to the public. He said they\u2019ll take over the current RCMP office on 176A Street immediately, but it will need to be retrofitted to bring it up to modern security standards. He couldn\u2019t offer a timeline of just when the office will open, but he said he doesn\u2019t anticipate any lengthy delays. He also said if there are any issues with the building, such as asbestos or something else, then they will have to open an office in a different location.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly important to us to have a community policing office that\u2019s accessible to the community in every district in Surrey,\u201d he said. \u201cThe chief\u2019s made a commitment to that. I agree\u2014100 per cent\u2014that if we really want to be accepted as part of the community, that is one of the approaches we need to take.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the SPS is continuing to work with the province and the RCMP and that there may be more news about the situation coming out before the April 1 transition date.<\/p>\n
Sheppard said the overall transition is still on track to be completed in 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Surrey Police Service says \u2018hiccup\u2019 in plans to takeover East Surrey won\u2019t derail transition Published 11:30 am Wednesday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":{"0":"post-514446","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-surrey","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-surrey"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}