A Surrey Police Board meeting on Oct. 29 heard results from a 2024 City of Surrey public opinion survey that indicates 70 per cent of all Surrey residents had no contact whatsoever with police this year.
The Leger Inc. survey of 808 participants in July found that 18 per cent of Surrey residents indicated they were a victim of crime, 61 per cent reported the crime while 36 per cent did not, and that 39 per cent of residents fear walking alone at night in their community.
The survey designed by Eli Sopow (Ph.D, human and organizational systems) and Curt Griffiths (Ph.D, criminology), revealed that in rating organized crime and gangs as a high or very high priority for police to tackle, the Surrey average was 75 per cent (same for Newton), 69 per cent in Cloverdale, 77 per cent in Guildford, 76 per cent in Fleetwood, 81 per cent in South Surrey and 73 per cent in Whalley.
Sopow told the board respondents indicated they didn't report their crime "because they think the police are too busy." Many crimes were relatively minor in nature, he noted.
"Surprisingly this year, compared to 2021, South Surrey for reasons I don't quite know yet and it didn't show up in the survey, have more concerns about being safe and having a greater police presence and they thing overall, compared to the averages for Surrey overall, things are a little more troublesome than they were in 2021," Sopow remarked.
"South Surrey is rumbling a bit more."
Sixty-six per cent on average in Surrey say mental health calls are something the police need to "keep their eye on," but in the City Centre that jumps to 91 per cent with respondents thinking that's going to have "a major, major impact on crime in the coming year," Sopow said.
"Well, that's something – the visible homelessness, that's not going away. On average 57 per cent for Surrey, okay, maybe that can be managed in several different ways with the consultations with community services but again where's that higher? Hello again, Whalley/City Centre, right there 66 per cent, the highest of all the different communities, they think that's where things are really going to be biting us in the coming year."
Survey respondents said the highest priorities for policing should be responding to violent crime followed by "having timely police services," dealing with organized crime and gangs, then domestic violence, cyber crimes and property crimes.
Meantime, a snapshot of future policing pressures in Surrey, the survey says, were ranked in this order of priority: Organized crime gangs, growing population, illegal drug sales, greater traffic, visible homeless, mental health calls and internet scams.
And as for police operations, the survey results indicate, 66 per cent of the public prefers a mix of foots patrols and vehicle patrols, 57 per cent of respondents placed a high/very high rating on community consultation, 84 per cent agreed/strongly agreed that Surrey Police Service officers should wear body cameras, 60 per cent think its somewhat/very important that police officers are fluent in "other-than-English," and 43 per cent think there should be an equal number of male and female police officers.
Mike Serr, board administrator, said the SPS currently has "just under" 450 police officers as it ramps up to become Surrey's police of jurisdiction on Nov. 29.
Chief Constable Norm Lipinski said he's looking forward to showing a strategic policing plan for 2025 to the public "district by district."
"We are hiring according to a plan that is being developed, yet to be revealed to the public, but we are working with the three levels of government and of course the RCMP on mobilizing Surrey detachment and the RCMP demobilizing Surrey detachment, there's more information that will be coming in the next few weeks on that," Lipinski told the board.
"Suffice to say we are very much on track for Nov. 29, we will be POJ on Nov. 29, and there's a lot of hard work that has been done and there's a lot of detailed work that has yet to be done between now and Nov. 29."
Lipinski said in early November the SPS will launch a "public education campaign on what exactly happens on Nov. 29, and there will be multiple media streams on that and the most important thing that I want to relay to the public is there will be a continuity of service, which is to say that public safety will not be jeopardized, there is a lot of different methodologies that are being used to ensure that that doesn't happen in any way, shape or form.
Lipinski added he's "very confident" the work that the SPS is doing with the RCMP and government agencies is "cohesively building a plan that ensures this transition continues as we go through 2025 and 2026 and a bit of 2027."
The board's next meeting is set for Nov. 27.
On Nov. 16, 2023, the provincial government appointed Serr, a retired Abbotsford Police chief, as temporary administrator of the board.
"The government has taken this extraordinary step to ensure the policing transition can be completed efficiently and effectively," the SPB website states. "During this time, all board members’ appointments will be paused and they will resume their roles once the Province determines that the work of the Administrator is complete."
