Statement From Assistant Commissioner Brian Edwards On The Surrey RCMP’s Response To COVID-19

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Surrey RCMP is taking proactive steps to ensure that the safety of Surrey residents will not be compromised, should illness occur within our detachment.

We have also implemented a number of measures to protect the health of our police officers, support staff, volunteers and Auxiliaries.

I want to assure citizens that we have several layers to our business continuity plans and multiple tiers of resources that we can redirect to frontline policing. We have limited our community outreach programs and cancelled our annual Open House, which was scheduled for May 9th, so we can focus on the task at hand.

These are only two examples of many, but, rest assured, given this degree of contingency planning, you will continue to see police officers on patrol and responding to calls for service within the community. If you call, we will respond.

After several weeks of pre-planning I directed a COVID-19 Response Team to be stood up within the Surrey RCMP detachment on March 12th. The primary responsibility of this team is the maintenance of core policing in the City of Surrey during this pandemic.

This team is fully staffed with police officers and municipal support staff who are monitoring police operations on a real-time basis to ensure we maintain full frontline operational response capabilities.

For those that believe this may be an opportunity to take advantage of others or commit offences, think again. The Surrey RCMP is served by an extremely dedicated group of people who seek to give their absolute best to this community, every day.

This latest challenge makes that only more clear to me – every one of my employees has stepped forward to support, protect and serve this community with distinction. Apprehending those taking advantage of this situation sits squarely in line with our core values of service to this community.

I want to assure Surrey citizens that our dedicated team of police officers and employees will continue to meet the public safety needs of our residents, without hesitation.