LETTER: Who is policing Surrey\u2019s parks?<\/p>\n
Published 7:00 am Friday, April 3, 2026<\/p>\n
Editor,<\/p>\n
re: \u201cWho\u2019s supposed to keep Surrey citizens safe on the streets?\u201d (Letter to the editor, March 26 online)<\/p>\n
I had an experience similar to Teri Temperton\u2019s recently.<\/p>\n
Recently, I called the non-emergency line at about 2:30 p.m. on a weekday to report some rough-looking individuals who appeared to be drinking and consuming drugs in a city park. This was concerning because many students pass through and elderly people walk their dogs in the area.<\/p>\n
I asked for a call back. I know the police are busy, but I expected police to show up eventually to chase these guys out. No such luck. Two hours later, there was no call. I called the non-emergency number back and asked what happened.<\/p>\n
I was told there was no file number or record. The call had simply been transferred to the bylaws office, which was closing by that time. I was not told this would happen, and I did not consent to it. By the time bylaw officers arrive, it is likely too late.<\/p>\n
This also seems to mean the park is essentially unpoliced when bylaw officers are unavailable. Citizens of Surrey deserve better. This is an unsafe situation.<\/p>\n
If I call the police regarding a police matter, it should not be passed over to bylaws (without even telling the complainant). Bylaw officers are not the police and are generally unavailable after work hours. Who is policing the park in the gap?<\/p>\n
Brent Steele, Surrey<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LETTER: Who is policing Surrey\u2019s parks? Published 7:00 am Friday, April 3, 2026 Editor, re: \u201cWho\u2019s supposed to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":["post-579926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579926","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=579926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}