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The City of Surrey found itself in a deepening crisis Tuesday following the abrupt ouster of its chief of police and the resignation of the chair of the police board who alleged “political tentacles” were reaching far too deep into police activities.
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The sudden changes couldn’t have come at a worse time. The city is completing its transition away from the RCMP to a municipal force and dealing with a spate of shootings and extortion-related violence.
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The Surrey police board announced Tuesday that Lipinski had “left” the force but didn’t give any reason for his departure. Board member Hanne Madsen later said the board had decided to “terminate” Lipinski. But another source told Postmedia News that Lipinski was placed on leave following a meeting Monday morning with Surrey police board members and that he was given until Thursday at 4 p.m. to resign or he would be terminated without cause.
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Afterwards, he turned in his badge and left police headquarters, according to the source who didn’t want to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak on the matter.
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It remains unclear if his departure is being classified as a resignation or a firing.
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“We want to assure our partners and all community members that we remain focused on protecting public safety and providing uninterrupted service delivery to the community,” the board said in its statement Tuesday morning.
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The board confirmed that Deputy Chief Todd Matsumoto has been appointed interim chief, and will begin a recruitment process soon to find a permanent chief of police.
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A short time later, Harley Chappell, the police board chair, announced he had resigned, saying he was blindsided by the decision to oust Lipinski.
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Chappell later told Postmedia the decision to oust Lipinski came during a closed board meeting Friday, which he couldn’t attend.
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Before the meeting, Chappell said he asked the other board members if there were any motions planned for the closed meeting that he should be made aware of, and he was told there weren’t.
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According to the agenda, the closed meeting listed numerous items from board members Madsen and Larry Thomas, including ones related to “operational, staffing and governance concerns” and “confidential personnel matter.”
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“I believe I have gone above and beyond in leading an independent, non-politically influenced board to govern the SPS, unfortunately 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,” Chappell wrote in his resignation letter.
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When asked about his letter, Chappell said there has “obviously” been strife between the City of Surrey and Lipinski, and this decision was planned in advance.
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“It’s always been my personal feeling that they didn’t want him in that role,” Chappell said.
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He said that the board’s executive director, Jason Kuzminski, told him that two other board members communicated with Lipinski on Monday, and Kuzminski himself wasn’t present.
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“There’s been inklings from certain directors around it over the years and over the time — and especially since new directors have been appointed in March, there’s been little murmurs here, but there’d never been any conversation, any direction, any meaningful conversation if Norm was the right person for the job,” Chappell said.
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Chappell said he spoke with Lipinski later Monday.
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“What happened?” Lipinski asked, according to Chappell.
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Chappell said he responded that he had no idea since he wasn’t at the special meeting, but that his termination wasn’t something he could stand by seeing.
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“If this is the way the board is, if this is the direction the board is moving, I don’t want to be any part of it,” he said.
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On Tuesday afternoon, Madsen agreed to speak with Postmedia but refused to answer many questions.
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“It was the decision of the board to terminate Chief Const. Norm Lipinski. We had a board meeting where a decision was made that we would like to renew the leadership and take the leadership in the new direction,” Madsen said.
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When asked to elaborate on the reasons why, Madsen refused.
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She also declined to answer whether there were discussions to terminate Lipinski before Friday, what his severance package would look like, how Lipinski reacted or who was at the Monday meeting.
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Lipinski had been the first chief of the new municipal force since 2020. He was making a base salary of $285,000 but was typically receiving total compensation of around $330,000.
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Asked about Chappell’s claim that politics had encroached into the board’s decisions, Madsen said: “I can’t speak to that, because the Surrey police board is independent from the City of Surrey, and the mayor does not — is not represented on the board. So, this was a board decision, not a city decision.”
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Mayor Brenda Locke didn’t grant Postmedia an interview but released a statement thanking Lipinski for his service and said she looks forward to working with Matsumoto.
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“I am confident that the Surrey police board has a plan in place that will continue to prioritize keeping our neighbourhoods safe, while supporting the SPS to become a Canadian leader in trusted, modern and responsive policing,” Locke stated.
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The Surrey police released a statement from Matsumoto in which he said he looked forward to “working with the Surrey police board to maintain momentum on the work that matters most for Surrey.”
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B.C. Premier David Eby said earlier in the day he told Locke months ago that the province has been too involved in Surrey’s policing transition and he wants to take a step back. Locke agreed, he added.
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“It’s important for them (the police board) to let us know what their plan is here, given the amount of speculation that’s currently taking place,” Eby told reporters. “Those local decisions about who the police chief is, policy priorities, are the kinds of decisions that local police boards are intended to make, and should make. So I look forward to hearing a full update from the Surrey police board about their plans here.”
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Seven of the nine directors on the police board are appointed directly by the province. One director is appointed by the city and the ninth director is a member of city council.
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In a letter to members Monday, the Surrey Police Union said it hadn’t received any formal notification from the board about Lipinski. Union president Ryan Buhrig said none of his calls to the board had been returned, which he called concerning.
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“If reports are accurate, this is one of the most significant decisions affecting Surrey Police Service since its creation,” he wrote.
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He added that learning about these developments “through rumours and media reports rather than direct communication is disappointing and raises serious questions about transparency.”
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Buhrig said while the union has raised alarms about critical staffing shortages and members experiencing increasing fatigue and burnout, these issues aren’t new and not to be blamed on Lipinski. These problems, he said, were created by the municipal and provincial governments.
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“Chief Lipinski did not create the political instability surrounding Surrey policing. He did not create the funding shortfalls. He did not create the staffing shortages. In fact, many of the concerns our members have today are concerns he repeatedly raised himself,” said Buhrig.
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Opposition Coun. Linda Annis said the decision to remove Lipinski seemed politically motivated and blamed the mayor for prolonging the transition even further.
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“Chief Lipinski’s termination by the mayor’s recent hand-picked police board is another tragic example of how her political interference and personal vendetta against our local police department is making our city unsafe,” Annis said in a statement.
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Eby announced in February that five new members of the board would be introduced, who were all agreed upon by the province and the city. Sarbjit Bains, Christine Mohr, Nerissa Allen and Sonia Parmar were all let go and replaced by Jaswinder (Jessie) Sidhu, George Duncan, Madsen, Thomas and Parminder (Perm) Jawanda.
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Lipinski has over 45 years of experience in policing. Before joining the SPS, Lipinski served in several senior roles, including as a deputy chief of the Delta Police Department, as a deputy chief of the Edmonton Police Service, and as an assistant commissioner of the RCMP.
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The SPS was started by former mayor Doug McCallum and opposed by Locke.
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Locke ran and won on a campaign to stop the policing transition away from the RCMP to a municipal force. However, the city was forced to continue the transition by the province. Locke took the province to court, but ultimately lost the case after the courts dismissed her petition for a judicial review in 2024.
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Locke and the force have been at odds on numerous occasions. Most recently, Locke said Lipinski and the police board need to “take a hard look” at all of the violence happening in Surrey, adding that shootings have only increased in the last year.
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She also criticized the force for suspending its gang crime unit and called for a review of the decision.
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Since the SPS became the police of jurisdiction in November 2024, the city has experienced extortion threats and related shootings the department has labelled a crisis, and increasing violent crimes.
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The phased transition continues, with SPS having control over every town centre in the city except for Guildford.
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When the province asked SPS to speed up the transition and move into Cloverdale by April 1 instead of what the force initially planned, by July, Lipinski asked the province for an extension. The request was denied and the SPS, which is still filling officer positions, had to take over all of Cloverdale by April, which it did in part by reassigning officers, such as the gang unit ones.
