The B.C. government’s director of policing has denied a request from Surrey’s police chief for a four-month delay of its transition into the Cloverdale neighbourhood.
Surrey police Chief Norm Lipinski said Wednesday in a news release that he asked the province for the extension largely due to the city’s extortion crisis, which has affected the force in an “unprecedented” manner and has led to dozens of officers being assigned to specialized extortion investigation teams.
“While this work is critical to protecting our community, it has significantly impacted our staffing capacity,” Lipinski said.
However, Glen Lewis, the province’s director of policing and law enforcement, instead told the SPS it is expected to police all of Cloverdale by April 1, according to Lipinski.
The Surrey Police Service became the police of jurisdiction in B.C.’s second largest city in November 2024, taking over from the RCMP as part of a phased transition plan.
It assumed responsibility for policing first in the Whalley and Newton neighbourhoods, and then took over South Surrey in 2025. That left Cloverdale and Guildford.
The SPS was to expand into south Cloverdale in April and north Cloverdale in July. Lipinski said Cloverdale alone requires about 70 officers.
“Over the past six months, however, Surrey has faced an unprecedented extortion crisis. Addressing this serious and complex issue has required the redeployment of more than 40 SPS officers to specialized investigative teams,” Lipinski wrote.
The chief said the SPS proposed to the province delaying the transition into Cloverdale by four months to “allow us to maintain strong response levels across the city while continuing to address the extortion investigations effectively.”
As of November 2025, Surrey police said it had 583 sworn officers out of the police service’s stated goal of 860 by the end of the transition. SPS says the transition will be complete in 2027.
“Discussions with the province, the Surrey police board, our unions, and legal counsel are ongoing. I will be able to provide an update once these discussions are concluded,” Lipinski said.
