The chair of the Surrey Police Board (SPB), Harley Chappell, has announced his resignation from the oversight committee on Tuesday, a day after the police Chief Norm Lipinski was dismissed.
In an interview with 1130 NewsRadio, Chappell says that his decision is in response to Lipinski’s termination, a step he does not support, claiming that he was “blindsided to have Norm removed.”
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Chappell explains that the board decided to ask Lipinski to resign or face involuntary termination during a meeting on May 29, which he did not attend.
He says that nobody in attendance had reached out to him afterwards to inform him about the motion.
Chappell says he did not find out what took place during Friday’s meeting until Monday.
“And then I found this out. So, just knowing and feeling, and sensing that if this is the direction that the board chooses to go, I don’t want any part of it,” Chappell told 1130 NewsRadio.
“I will choose to step aside and allow them to tidy up this mess.”
Chappell adds that he was surprised by the motion being introduced because he did not notice “any inclinations that people wanted to remove the Chief Constable” during previous meetings.
In a statement sent to 1130 NewsRadio, Chappell blames “political tentacles and pressures” that have infiltrated the SPB.
The Semiahmoo First Nation Chief says that he has always tried to keep the board independent and free of any political influence, which he believes he can no longer do.
“We were supposed to be a non-political independent board. We shouldn’t have been influenced by any politics, whether that’s provincial or municipal. But I kind of get those inklings that we had some other things going on that didn’t work in that favour,” Chappell told 1130 NewsRadio.
He now says that he can no longer be part of the board, “morally and ethically.”
Chappell adds that his relationship with the ousted SPS Chief was “fantastic.”
He praises Lipinski’s vision for community policing in Surrey and his work on the ongoing transition of policing from the RCMP to a citywide police department.
“Multiple barriers and multiple obstacles that the SPS has had to overcome over the years, and some of those were put in the way by the province, some were put in the way by the municipality, and those were dealt with,” Chappell explained.
He says that Lipinski, despite being hired to oversee the transition and supporting it, was not always on board with the board’s demands, particularly the fast pace of how some changes happened.
“I think one of the challenges that new directors had was the Chief pushing back a little bit on the transition,” Chappell said.
“And obviously, directors had very different opinions of that.”
“I applauded Chief Lipinski for his ability to say, “We need to slow this down; this is not something we need to be rushing.’”
Chappell’s resignation is effective immediately.
– With files from Kyle Benning.
