Crime prevention and policing are always a sensitive issue to tackle because of the many problems linked to this topic. This is true in almost every city in the world especially one that is tagged by most people as a high crime rate city. If you live in the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) in British Columbia one will often hear certain stigmas about the city of Surrey, and this has caused many people to have a mental image of what that city represents. In 2005, the total crime rate for the city of Surrey was higher than other surrounding cities such as Vancouver and Burnaby (Park, 2006). Also, in 2002 the city of Surrey was given the dubious honour of being the new car theft capital of North America (CTV, 2006). There have even been forums written by people in Surrey that describe how bad the crime and the image of the city are for districts like Whalley, which is located in the city center of Surrey. Therefore, something must be done to help improve the crime and the stigma about the city of Surrey.

Geographical Information Systems/Science (GIS) is a useful analytical tool that includes the powerful tools and the science behind it to help determine locations. For this project the use of a raster based GIS software such as IDRISI and the science behind GIS to help locate the best location for a new police station in the city of Surrey, BC. Through the analysis multi-criteria evaluation along with an analytical hierarchy decision process it will be able to determine where the most suitable location for the topic of this project.