{"id":602846,"date":"2026-04-14T06:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T06:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/602846\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T06:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T06:21:08","slug":"surrey-council-endorses-policing-priorities-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/602846\/","title":{"rendered":"Surrey council endorses policing priorities report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Surrey council endorses policing priorities report<\/p>\n

Published 9:30 pm Monday, April 13, 2026<\/p>\n

Surrey city council approved a 2026 Policing Priorities, Goals, and Objectives report Monday from public safety general manager Brian Edwards, formerly in charge of the Surrey RCMP before the Surrey Police Service replaced the Mounties.<\/p>\n

Edwards said in his report before council that the priorities, goals and objectives are \u201cresponsive to community needs, while demonstrating a strong commitment to delivering efficient, accountable, and cost-effective policing services.\u201d<\/p>\n

He asked Mayor Brenda Locke to write to Surrey Police Board chairman Harley Chappell and Chief Constable Norm Lipinski outlining this strategy and for council to endorse collaboration with the board and SPS \u201cto further refine said priorities in support of delivering a public strategy for 2027.\u201d<\/p>\n

The City of Surrey\u2019s public safety department was established last August tasked with coordinating public safety services related to policing, firefighting, emergency management, bylaws enforcement and licencing, engineering, and parks, recreation and culture \u201cwhile fostering strategic partnerships with the board and SPS,\u201d Edwards noted in his report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Council\u2019s first priority for the police board and SPS, as contained in the report, is to complete the policing transition in a \u201ctimely, accountable, and financially prudent\u201d way while maintaining \u201cadequate and effective overall service delivery.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second priority is dealing with the extortion crisis, disrupting and dismantling organized crime networks driven by it. Priority number three is collaboration with an aim to \u201cdeliver integrated and aligned services,\u201d and \u201cwhere feasible, establish shared administrative services with the City of Surrey, to maximize the use of resources and gain financial efficiencies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cExplore strategies to collaborate with Bylaws to improve overall public safety in the City of Surrey,\u201d Edwards added. \u201cCollaborate with health partners to manage the impacts of mental health and drug addiction on public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fourth priority as listed is developing a future policing model that includes engaging with council \u201cin the development of a service delivery model that outlines future policing services.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other key considerations for the police board and SPS, Edwards added, are dealing with public nuisance and disorder; youth support and programming; communication and engagement with City residents; and property crime (including retail theft).<\/p>\n

Councillor Doug Elford noted that the priorities are mandated by the Police Act \u201cthen we provide the priorities to the police board. There\u2019s still some public consultation that has to happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll send these over to the police board and they\u2019ll take it under advisement, right. It\u2019s not we\u2019re telling them what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Surrey Police Board\u2019s next meeting is set for April 30.<\/p>\n

On Monday, during former mayor Doug McCallum\u2019s presser where he declared his intention to enter the mayoralty race, McCallum said it \u201castonishes\u201d him that \u201cwe have a whole department of public safety in the City when in fact we have our own police force which provides the public safety and it has its own board itself, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

During Monday\u2019s council meeting Councillor Rob Stutt thanked Edwards for his \u201cvery fulsome and appropriate\u201d report. \u201cI think it shows that we are working in lockstep with the Surrey Police Board and the Surrey Police Service to carry through with our transition and represent the best interests of the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is a great step forward,\u201d Stutt said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Surrey council endorses policing priorities report Published 9:30 pm Monday, April 13, 2026 Surrey city council approved a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":{"0":"post-602846","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\/602846","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=602846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}