Careful users of language frown upon the usage, “The shop is surrounded on all sides by the police.”
When you say the police surrounded the criminal, what you mean is that the criminal was in the middle and the police were all around him. In other words, they were on all sides. So, when you say that he was surrounded on all sides, you are merely repeating yourself.
S. Upendran , The Hindu- ‘Know Your English’ Series, January 14, 2003
KYE 