SURREY Police Service (SPS) and the Surrey Police Board have released the 2021-2022 Report to the Community to inform the public about the development of Surrey’s new municipal police agency over the past year.

The report is now available on the SPS website.

The theme of SPS’s 2021-2022 Report to the Community is “Designed from Day 1 for Surrey”, highlighting how everything from SPS’s hiring, to engagement with the community, to the development of its policing services is being tailored to Surrey communities and their unique public safety needs.

“It is critically important that we do not squander this opportunity to create a policing model that works for today’s world and for Surrey’s needs,” said Chief Constable Norm Lipinski on Monday. “We cannot simply accept what was done in the past, or the ‘status quo’ of policing. Our world has changed, and so must our policing model.”

SPS’s Report to the Community provides information on how SPS is creating a culture of wellness, working to keep the public and officers safer through enhanced de-escalation training, and demonstrating accountability through increased access to information.

The report also includes 2021 financials for both SPS and the policing transition, hiring statistics, strategic priorities and action items, and the work of the Police Board.

“It is hard to believe that it has been just two years since the Surrey Police Board was established, when we consider the significant milestones Surrey Police Service and the Board have achieved,” says the Surrey Police Board in their message in the report.

“From signing a collective agreement with the Surrey Police Union to hiring our 200th police officer, we have made incredible progress while keeping public and officer safety as our foundational principal.”

Over the past year, SPS has grown to over 275 employees, including 85 experienced officers deployed into policing operations, and 14 new recruits currently training at the Justice Institute of BC. Surrey is currently in phase one of its policing transition, during which SPS officers are integrated into the Surrey RCMP detachment every two months.

In a separate message, Lipinski said: “As of May 2022, SPS has over 275 employees, two unions representing staff, our first recruit class at the Justice Institute of BC Police Academy, and 85 officers deployed into policing operations in Surrey. In just the past year we also unveiled the SPS uniform and police vehicle design, completed our first strategic plan, signed our first collective agreement, and worked with the RCMP to develop an approved plan that will guide our respective human resources as phase one of the policing transition continues.”

View or download the Surrey Police Service 2021-2022 Report to the Community at www.surreypolice.ca.