![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/indicator-big.gif\")
<\/p>\nNo reason was given for the change in leadership at the service.<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
But now-former chair Harley Chappell cited politics, saying in a letter that the board made the decision to fire Lipinski at a special meeting that he did not attend.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do not support this motion and feel it to be in violation of our governance policies and provincial Police Act. But unfortunately, what is done is done,\u201d Chappell said in the letter that he provided to The Canadian Press.<\/p>\n
Chappell said he believed he had gone \u201cabove and beyond in leading an independent, non-politically influenced board\u201d to govern the Surrey Police Service.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, I feel the political tentacles and pressures have reached far too deeply into our newly formed SPS board, and I morally and ethically cannot be part of this moving forward,\u201d the letter said.<\/p>\n
Chappell, who is the elected Chief of Semiahmoo First Nation, told the Jas Johal Show that the meeting where it was decided to fire Lipinski was called despite his colleagues knowing he could not attend last Friday.<\/p>\n
In its statement, the board said it was confident in the continued professionalism of all personnel with the service.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to assure our partners and all community members that we remain focused on protecting public safety and providing uninterrupted service delivery to the community,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
Lipinski was named chief in November 2020 and had previously served as deputy police chief in the neighbouring city of Delta and as an assistant commissioner with the RCMP.<\/p>\n
Locke said in a statement that she was confident that the police board had a plan in place for the leadership transition while thanking Lipinski for his service.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs mayor, my focus remains public safety, and I look forward to working with interim Chief Todd Matsumoto during this transition period,\u201d Locke said.<\/p>\n
The city has been beset by extortion-related violence this year targeting the South Asian community, while another recent spasm of deadly gang shootings has led to criticism of the force from the mayor about diverting resources from the gang squad. <\/p>\n
Surrey Coun. Linda Annis said in an interview that she could not think of a worse time to terminate the chief.<\/p>\n
The city was in a state of crisis, she said, with extortion threats, gang homicides and in the middle of a transition. <\/p>\n
\u201cQuite frankly, I think it\u2019s a political decision. The mayor hasn\u2019t been happy with the SPS since the get-go.\u201d <\/p>\n
Residents of Surrey deserved to know why the chief was terminated, said Annis, who is also a candidate for mayor in this fall\u2019s local election. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very concerned and upset about the safety of our residents in Surrey,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
B.C. Premier David Eby said at an unrelated news conference on Tuesday that his government\u2019s priority remained the maintenance of stable policing in Surrey during the leadership transition.<\/p>\n
Eby said he told Locke a few months ago that the provincial government had been \u201ctoo involved\u201d in the Surrey policing issue \u201cfor too long\u201d and it was time for local government to take responsibility.<\/p>\n
He said that Locke agreed with the assessment, and the municipal government had worked with the province on filling out the police board in order to make local decisions, such as who the chief should be.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important for them to let us know what their plan is here, given the amount of speculation that\u2019s currently taking place,\u201d Eby said in reaction to the departure of Lipinski.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 2, 2026.<\/p>\n
The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No reason was given for the change in leadership at the service. But now-former chair Harley Chappell cited…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":["post-711170","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\/711170","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=711170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}