The City of Vancouver has launched a new initiative to address the extortion crisis by making every public interaction  with city's staff is transparent and secure.

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim, said in a social media post that to  protect residents from extortion, the City's Development, Buildings and Licensing Department now requires all inspectors, including those in building, electrical, plumbing, gas, and animal services, to ensure their official City phone numbers are visible when contacting the public.

Residents can verify the identity of any inspector by consulting the public list of staff, available at vancouver.ca. If you remain uncertain about a caller's identity, we encourage you to call 311 to be directed to the appropriate department for further verification.

For any concerns regarding reported extortion attempts, please contact the Vancouver Police Department's non-emergency line: 604-717-332