August 8, 2025
RED FM News Desk
Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke has spoken out about ongoing criminal activity in the city, including recent extortion cases and targeted shootings. In an exclusive interview on the Harjinder Thind Show on RED FM on Friday, Locke said police are working hard to catch those responsible but face hurdles due to the legal system in British Columbia, where only the “Crown can lay charges, not the police”.
Locke expressed concern over the recent attack on Indian entertainment star Kapil Sharma’s café in Surrey, which was targeted for the second time in less than a month. The mayor said she is in regular contact with Surrey Police Service (SPS) Chief Constable Norm Lipinski.
In early July, shots were fired at the cafe just days after it opened for business, but no arrests have been made in the case so far.
She said that police are making all the efforts to trace the accused and she is in regular contact with Surrey Police Service (SPS) Chief Constable Norm Lipinski to resolve these issues.
“This is devastating for our city. This is certainly devastating for the good people of Kap’s cafe and so the city certainly. I’ve talked many times now with Chief Lipinski, and I know they are working diligently at trying to get to the bottom of this and who is out there,” she said.
When questioned about public fears that no arrests have been made in recent targeted shooting incidents including extortion, she explained a key challenge facing police in B.C. “The (Surrey police) chief and I have had that conversation. We’ve talked about this in the past but one of the challenges in British Columbia is that the police don’t lay the charges so that the bar for them is challenging one. They can do the arrest, but they cannot lay the charge. Only in British Columbia and Quebec the crown lay those charges. So they have to go build their case go to the prosecutor unlike in Alberta, where the police lay those charges,” she said.
She have also appealed to the public for assistance in identifying suspects, emphasizing that community cooperation is crucial for resolving these cases and ensuring public safety.
“You know, somebody out there knows, who these thugs and criminals are and they need to start to talk because people are at risk,” she said.
Mayor said she has written a letter to the attorney general regarding this matter and also tried to talk with the BC Premier David Eby. Loacke said she is going to meet the public safety minister Nina Kriege to have discussion on the law and order issue.
The city has recently hired a Public Safety General Manager to coordinate efforts with the RCMP and other agencies, aiming to improve public safety outcomes.
Mayor said that the city has just hire a public safety general manager. “He will be very on point on this and working with Surrey Police Service, the RCMP and in fact they are already working. A number of these agencies are working on this (issue) in our region,” she added.
SPS has told RED FM that Surrey has reported a total of 43 shooting incidents from January 1 to July 29, 2025. Out of these 43 cases, 21 incidents have been directly linked to extortion, marking a disturbing trend that has seen a sharp increase particularly over the past three months. During this period, multiple local businesses and private residences have been targeted with bullets fired at storefronts and homes, and demands for extortion money issued.
The situation has grown serious enough that in June 2025, the Surrey Police Service launched a dedicated counter-extortion team aimed at tackling this wave of violence. However, SPS has failed to make any major breakthrough in these cases.
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