BY RATTAN MALL
THE intense pressure applied by the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit (CFSEU-BC), Surrey RCMP and Delta Police to the two groups reported to be in competition over the street-level drug trade has resulted some members actually leaving the Surrey-Delta area.
CFSEU-BC Sgt. Lindsey Houghton told The VOICE on Thursday that there had been only one shooting incident connected to this since May 12.
He said: “What we’ve seen since this level of coordination and the devotion of a lot of resources went into this is a significant reduction in the number of shootings. We’ve seen people arrested, guns and drugs seized.”
He said that this “has had a fairly significant disruptive and suppressive effect; putting people in jail, charging people criminally, taking away their means and ability to commit crime.”
He added: “We know that people have actually left the community and gone elsewhere. So all of these things together certainly play a significant role and what we believe is going in the right direction.”
However, he cautioned: “To say that this thing is solved and we can move on, I don’t think we can say that because these issues have existed for many, many years and if we don’t continue to work with the community, if we don’t continue to work with families – not just from the prevention side, but also continue to suppress and disrupt the activities of those people involved – it could flare up again and we don’t want that.”
I pointed out to him last week’s appointments of South Asian RCMP officers in key posts – Superintendent Mandip “Manny” Mann as Investigative Services Officer and Sgt. Parmvir (Parm) Prihar as District Commander for Newton – by Surrey RCMP Chief Superintendent Bill Fordy were a morale booster.
Houghton responded: “Absolutely! In the policing community, we look to find leaders who can connect with the grass roots of the community and a lot of work and effort and thought go into not only developing those leaders, but to ensure that the timing is right for them to be able to come in and assume leadership roles.”
