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\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\nThe chair of the Surrey Police Board (SPB), Harley Chappell, has announced his resignation from the oversight committee on Tuesday, a day after the police Chief Norm Lipinski was dismissed.<\/p>\n
In an interview with 1130 NewsRadio, Chappell says that his decision is in response to Lipinski\u2019s termination, a step he does not support, claiming that he was \u201cblindsided to have Norm removed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chappell explains that the board decided to ask Lipinski to resign or face involuntary termination during a meeting on May 29, which he did not attend.<\/p>\n
He says that nobody in attendance had reached out to him afterwards to inform him about the motion.<\/p>\n
Chappell says he did not find out what took place during Friday\u2019s meeting until Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then I found this out. So, just knowing and feeling, and sensing that if this is the direction that the board chooses to go, I don\u2019t want any part of it,\u201d Chappell told 1130 NewsRadio.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will choose to step aside and allow them to tidy up this mess.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chappell adds that he was surprised by the motion being introduced because he did not notice \u201cany inclinations that people wanted to remove the Chief Constable\u201d during previous meetings.<\/p>\n
In a statement sent to 1130 NewsRadio, Chappell blames \u201cpolitical tentacles and pressures\u201d that have infiltrated the SPB.<\/p>\n
The Semiahmoo First Nation Chief says that he has always tried to keep the board independent and free of any political influence, which he believes he can no longer do.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were supposed to be a non-political independent board. We shouldn\u2019t have been influenced by any politics, whether that\u2019s provincial or municipal. But I kind of get those inklings that we had some other things going on that didn\u2019t work in that favour,\u201d Chappell told 1130 NewsRadio.<\/p>\n
He now says that he can no longer be part of the board, \u201cmorally and ethically.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chappell praises Lipinski for managing police transition<\/p>\n
Chappell adds that his relationship with the ousted SPS Chief was \u201cfantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n
He praises Lipinski\u2019s vision for community policing in Surrey and his work on the ongoing transition of policing from the RCMP to a citywide police department.<\/p>\n
\u201cMultiple barriers and multiple obstacles that the SPS has had to overcome over the years, and some of those were put in the way by the province, some were put in the way by the municipality, and those were dealt with,\u201d Chappell explained.<\/p>\n
He says that Lipinski, despite being hired to oversee the transition and supporting it, was not always on board with the board\u2019s demands, particularly the fast pace of how some changes happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think one of the challenges that new directors had was the Chief pushing back a little bit on the transition,\u201d Chappell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd obviously, directors had very different opinions of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI applauded Chief Lipinski for his ability to say, \u201cWe need to slow this down; this is not something we need to be rushing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Chappell\u2019s resignation is effective immediately.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With files from Kyle Benning.<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\tThe Surrey Police Service sign. (CityNews Image) <\/p>\n
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