Lower Mainland Police Area

The Lower Mainland Police Area is one of 40 police areas in the Canadian province of British Columbia (BC). Home to over 9 million people, it is the most populous police area in BC and the second-most populous in Canada, after the Toronto Metropolitan Police Area.

The Lower Mainland Police Area is under the jurisdiction of the Lower Mainland Constabulary (LMC), which is responsible for policing in and across the police area's seven counties and all seven counties' constituent municipalities and unincorporated communities, although law enforcement at the provincial level (across BC, including the Lower Mainland) is handled by the British Columbia Provincial Police (BCPP) and the British Columbia Sheriff Service (BCSS). Similarly, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the federal government's primary law enforcement agency, is responsible for policing at the federal level throughout BC (including the Lower Mainland Police Area) and of course the rest of Canada; it also maintains public security at the province's three international airports and five border crossings into the United States, in conjunction with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).

The BCPP partners with the Lower Mainland Constabulary against organised crime's major activities like illegal narcotics trafficking, human trafficking, blackmail/extortion, and infiltration of law enforcement (mostly via assistance to the LMC's [[PC-3|premier anti-corruption unit), as well as when its larger resources are needed for local investigations and operations (like extra police manpower to assist the LMC in the maintenance of public security and order during major events like Canada Day, and its state-of-the-art forensics labs and other scientific resources).

Like the BCPP, the BCSS assists the Lower Mainland Constabulary with local counterterrorism operations, investigations and operations against other real and potential extremely violent threats, large-scale riot control, and criminal intelligence, alongside its main responsibilities of transportation of prisoners between provincial corrections facilities and other locations (like other courthouses, police jails and other prisons and institutions), providing security and bailiff services to all provincial courthouses, providing security to provincial government buildings and large provincial Crown corporations, and its clandestine specialties like effective reconnaissance, surveillance and deep cover capabilities, unparalleled plainclothes personal protection details/bodyguard services for high-level provincial judicial and provincial governmental officials and other persons in the judicial system deemed at risk, and its role in the administration of the Canadian National Witness Protection Program (the operations of which it administers in BC under the oversight of the RCMP and CSIS).

Lower Mainland Police Commissioner
Each mayor of the 40 municipal governments and each council chairperson of the 7 county governments together sit on the Lower Mainland Police Board, which acts as the employer of the Lower Mainland Constabulary. The 47 members of the Police Board elect from amongst themselves a member to serve as the Lower Mainland Police Commissioner, to whom the Chief Constable of the Lower Mainland Constabulary is directly accountable; the Chief Constable is also jointly accountable to the Attorney General of British Columbia.

Constituent municipalities
The following municipal and county governments contract with the Lower Mainland Constabulary:


 * Capilano County
 * Ballantree
 * Canyon Heights
 * Cleveland Park
 * Dundarave
 * Kirkstone
 * Lions Bay
 * Lynn Valley
 * Upper Lonsdale


 * Coquitlam County
 * Anmore
 * Belcarra
 * Coquitlam
 * Port Coquitlam
 * Port Moody


 * Fraser Valley County
 * Abbotsford
 * Aldergrove
 * Chilliwack
 * Harrison Hotsprings
 * Langley
 * Matsqui


 * Golden Ears County
 * Kanaka Creek
 * Maple Ridge
 * Mission
 * Pitt Meadows


 * North Fraser County
 * Burnaby
 * Kerrisdale
 * Marpole
 * New Westminster
 * Point Grey
 * Vancouver


 * North Shore County
 * Deep Cove
 * Horseshoe Bay
 * Lynnwood
 * North Vancouver
 * Seymour Heights
 * West Vancouver


 * South Fraser County
 * Fraser Heights
 * Invergarry
 * Queensborough
 * Richmond
 * Steveston
 * Surrey
 * White Rock
 * Boundary Bay
 * Delta
 * Ladner
 * Tsawwassen
 * Westham Island