By: Lucaiah Smith-Miodownik, News Writer

In December 2025, Surrey police in officer vehicles fatally struck two pedestrians within two weeks of each other. The crashes raised concerns among community members regarding officer readiness and training, but they also rekindled larger questions around police transparency. The Peak corresponded with the Independent Investigations Office of BC (IIO), the Surrey Police Service, and former Delta officer and retired SFU criminology professor Dr. Rick Parent for more information.

The IIO is a “civilian-led police oversight” office, one of roughly 10 similar agencies in Canada. Designed to improve “public confidence in police oversight, accountability, and transparency in policing in British Columbia,” the office is tasked with investigating when police officers have potentially inflicted death or serious harm on others, or failed to act in a situation that has resulted in the same outcome. In instances where officers are found culpable, the IIO may recommend charges to the Crown counsel. When officers are not found responsible, no further steps are taken. “This occurs in approximately 75–85% of investigations,” the IIO told The Peak. 

In addition to the IIO, the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner reviews disciplinary incidents involving municipal police in BC, while the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP looks into disciplinary incidents involving the RCMP in BC. 

When investigations are discontinued due to lack of evidence or failure to meet the threshold for serious harm, the IIO will typically mark the case as closed without public report. More details are not released because “the privacy interests of the affected person or their family are generally found to outweigh the public interest in releasing more information, or there is otherwise insufficient rationale to publish a release,” the IIO said.

Outcomes like discontinued investigations are common, as “recommending charges against the police is also rare for the IIO,” Alberta criminology professor Temitope Oriola told Vancouver Sun. Information that is released “can take years,” Dr. Parent also told the publication.

When asked if there is precedent for instances where information is released to the public, Surrey Police referred The Peak to the Memorandum of Understanding Respecting Investigations, which details “clear guidelines on what police may release publicly.” The memorandum states that “a police agency may advise the media: that an incident has occurred; the general nature and context of that call; that the IIO has been notified of the incident and the reason for the IIO referral; [and] with respect to the welfare of involved officers.” Further, “the IIO will be responsible for issuing media statements regarding the IIO investigation.”

Ultimately, the IIO’s Chief Civilian Director Jessica Berglund “determines if and when the IIO will provide information to the public,” as explained in the office’s external communications policy. This document outlines other considerations that play into what details are reported, the summation of which boils down to whether information is “in the public interest.” Surrey Police added they “will await the conclusion of the IIO’s investigation and may, if appropriate, be in a position to comment following the IIO’s investigation and any issuance of reports from their office.”

Still, when it comes to cases like the pedestrian fatalities, keeping tight lips does “more harm than good,” Dr. Parent told The Peak. “There’s a desperate need to review and to change the mandate of the IIO so that it benefits the public,” he added.

“We need somebody from either the federal government or the 10 oversight agencies to get together and say, ‘how can we talk the same, how can we report information to the public’ so that researchers can also be involved in this process,” he said.

“We need to be critical of the police so they do a good job, and we can’t do that right now because of the ‘dysfunctionalism’ of oversight agencies across Canada.”

— Dr. Rick Parent, former Delta officer and retired SFU criminology professor

“They have all this information and they are independent of the police,” Dr. Parent said. “The IIO could really play an important role in making BC’s society safer, and they’re not doing that,” he added. “They have the budget, they have great investigators, they’ve got all these good people involved, but because they’ve got this very, very narrow mandate, they’re doing their job, but their job should be so much wider than what it is.”