{"id":73716,"date":"2026-06-04T01:38:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T01:38:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/73716\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T01:38:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T01:38:42","slug":"surreys-police-chief-out-police-board-chair-resigns-amid-sps-shakeup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/73716\/","title":{"rendered":"Surrey’s police chief out, police board chair resigns amid SPS shakeup"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s been a chaotic day for the Surrey Police Service (SPS).<\/p>\n

The Surrey Police Board announced Chief Const. Norm Lipinski has left the service, only for the board chair to resign in protest just hours later.<\/p>\n

Now-former chair Harley Chappell said the board made the decision to fire Lipinski at a special meeting that Chappell did not attend.<\/p>\n

In a news release, the board said it wanted to assure the community it remains focused on protecting public safety.<\/p>\n

\"Surrey<\/p>\n

The Surrey Police Board did not provide a reason why Lipinski left. (Ben Nelms\/CBC)<\/p>\n

The board did not say why Lipinski, in its words, left.<\/p>\n

Deputy Chief Const. Todd Matsumoto has been appointed as interim chief constable, according to the board.<\/p>\n

The Vancouver Sun<\/a> reported Monday that Lipinski had been told he had “until Thursday at 4 p.m. to resign or be terminated without cause from his position.”<\/p>\n

CBC News has not verified the Sun’s reporting and has reached out to Lipinski, the Surrey Police Board and Surrey city council for more information.<\/p>\n

The SPS and the provincial public safety ministry directed requests for comment to the Surrey Police Board, saying the board is Lipinski’s employer.<\/p>\n

The police board said it will soon begin the recruitment process for a new permanent chief.<\/p>\n

Board chair resigns<\/p>\n

In his resignation letter shared with CBC News, Chappell, who is also the chief of the Semiahmoo First Nation, said he feels the decision violates the board’s governance policies and the provincial Police Act.<\/p>\n

“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,” he said in the letter.<\/p>\n

In an interview with CBC News, Chappell said he was assured that the police board meeting last Friday did not contain any motions and was for information only, and he did not attend it due to other commitments.<\/p>\n

\"Semiahmoo<\/p>\n

Harley Chappell says he is resigning as chair of the Surrey Police Board. (CBC News)<\/p>\n

But Chappell said the board made the decision regarding Lipinski’s removal at that meeting.<\/p>\n

He said he does not think Lipinski was given a fair shake, and that his vision for the SPS was never able to come to fruition \u2014 due to crises like a rash of extortion cases<\/a>, gang-related shootings<\/a> and the pressure to complete the transition away from the RCMP as the police of jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

“I don’t like quitting. I’m not a quitter … it is really, truly disheartening to make that decision,” Chappell added.<\/p>\n

SPS’s first chief<\/p>\n

Lipinski was named as the first chief<\/a> of the SPS in 2020 as the city made its controversial transition away from the RCMP.<\/p>\n

His biography on the SPS website says he previously spent five years as deputy chief of the Delta Police Department and 32 years as deputy chief of the Edmonton Police Service.<\/p>\n

He also spent time as an assistant commissioner with the RCMP.<\/p>\n

“Chief Lipinski is uniquely equipped to help steer Surrey through its transition from the RCMP to a municipal policing model,” his online biography says.<\/p>\n

\"Chief<\/p>\n

Chief Const. Norm Lipinski served as deputy chief in Delta, B.C., and in Edmonton before he took on the chief constable role in Surrey. (Ben Nelms\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Lipinski’s departure comes just months after the province shook up the city’s police board.<\/p>\n

In February, Premier David Eby announced the province would not renew board members’ terms as they ended. Five new members were appointed<\/a> in March for 12-month terms. Eby suggested the whole board could be replaced.<\/p>\n

The nine-director board, an independent civilian oversight body for the municipal police department, employs all sworn and civilian staff of the SPS, according to its website.<\/p>\n

Surrey has been dealing with a rampant extortion crisis, with 112 reported extortions and 18 related “shots fired” in 2026 as of May 25.<\/p>\n

Union upset<\/p>\n

The Surrey Police Union said it was concerned about the transparency around the end of Lipinski’s tenure.<\/p>\n

Union president Ryan Buhrig said in a letter to members, before the board confirmed Lipinski had left, that police board members were not returning his calls.<\/p>\n

In the letter, which was obtained by CBC News, Buhrig questioned whether Lipinski is taking the blame “for challenges that were created by Mayor Brenda Locke, the City of Surrey, and the Province of British Columbia.”<\/p>\n

He added that “Chief Lipinski did not create the political instability surrounding Surrey policing.”<\/p>\n

“Many of the concerns our members have today are concerns he repeatedly raised himself.”<\/p>\n

Buhrig said staff shortages in the SPS “have reached critical levels,” meaning officers and staff are expected to do more with less.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Surrey police have made a slow and much-contested transition from an RCMP detachment to a municipal police force. (Darryl Dyck\/The Canadian Press)<\/p>\n

History of tension between chief, mayor<\/p>\n

Locke issued a statement Tuesday morning thanking Lipinski for his service.<\/p>\n

“I am confident that the Surrey Police Board has a plan in place that will continue to prioritize keeping our neighbourhoods safe,” she said.<\/p>\n

The relationship between SPS and Locke has been tense.<\/p>\n

Locke was elected in 2022 on a campaign to keep the RCMP rather than transition to a municipal force. She was part of a lengthy battle against the province, including a judicial review<\/a>, to reverse the transition that ended with her eventual acceptance<\/a> of it.<\/p>\n

At one point in 2023, while Locke was still fighting for the RCMP, Lipinski issued a public release<\/a> criticizing some of her statements around increased taxes due to the policing transition. He called her statements “inaccurate” and “intended to confuse residents and business owners.”<\/p>\n

\"Mayor<\/p>\n

Mayor Brenda Locke and Chief Const. Norm Lipinski make an announcement regarding extortion of local businesses in Surrey, on Sept. 15, 2025. (Ben Nelms\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, in the wake of the shooting deaths of two teens connected to the B.C. gang conflict, Locke criticized an SPS decision to redeploy its gang unit to staff Surrey’s Cloverdale district and called for a review<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lipinski said the reassignment was temporary due to the extortion crisis and policing transition and would be back to its regular staffing in mid-June.<\/p>\n

Premier David Eby addressed the news at an unrelated news conference Tuesday.<\/p>\n

He said he hadn’t yet received a full briefing from the police board but added that he told Locke months ago that “the province of B.C. has been too involved in policing in Surrey for too long.”<\/p>\n

“It’s time for the local community to take responsibility for their own police force. [The mayor] agreed and we worked together on appointments [to the board] that both the province and the city could support.”<\/p>\n

He said decisions around who the police chief is should be left to the local police board.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s been a chaotic day for the Surrey Police Service (SPS). The Surrey Police Board announced Chief Const.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[2532,27681,29815,29816,29506,29817,29504,13182,3164,97,3121,2533],"class_list":["post-73716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-brenda-locke","tag-chief-constable","tag-chief-lipinski","tag-deputy-chief","tag-harley-chappell","tag-lipinski","tag-norm-lipinski","tag-police-board","tag-sps","tag-surrey","tag-surrey-city-council","tag-surrey-police"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}