SURREY Mayor Brenda Locke and Surrey Police Service Chief Constable Norm Lipinski will be announcing a new initiative on Monday to address the recent spike in extortion cases.

There have been 53 shootings in Surrey this year plus another one last Saturday — an 89-per-cent increase over last year’s shootings.

Surrey Police Service (SPS) media relations officer Sgt. Tige Pollock told The VOICE last week: “I think it is important for context to acknowledge that the shooting stats increase is driven by the number of shootings related to extortions (27).”

There is growing frustration and fear in the South Asian community that not a single suspect has been arrested in the extortion cases.