Alberta government to fund 50 new Calgary Police Service officers

The Alberta government has provided the Calgary Police Service (CPS) with $4.16 million to hire 50 more officers for uniformed patrol duties in the downtown core. “We made this commitment in April,” said Alberta Public Safety and Emergency Services Minister Mike Ellis at a Wednesday press conference. “Today I am very proud to say we are delivering on this commitment with this funding.” While this funding is being delivered, Ellis said it is a milestone, adding there is more work to be done. CPS will be required to recruit, train and deploy these officers. How and when that will happen are operational matters it will carry out with independence from the Alberta government. He said the funding will cover the costs of the officers’ salaries, benefits, and equipment needs such as vehicles, uniforms, radios and body cameras. As he has said many times, officer presence matters and will continue to matter. The Alberta government has committed to doing whatever it takes to keep people safe. He blasted drug dealers who prey on vulnerable people and cause chaos on the streets, saying they are not welcome in Alberta. While Calgary is a great place to live, he acknowledged there is no denying the increase in crime and social disorder that began during the COVID-19 pandemic has not gone away. CPS could once say with a high degree of confidence random, unprovoked attacks were rare. Now it appears these attacks happen almost every other day. He called this “very concerning and will not be tolerated.” During his time as a CPS officer, he said he would often hear the victim was known to the offender. While random attacks concern him, they are leaving average Albertans anxious. With these rising crime rates, he said they have emphasized the need to address underlying issues such as addiction, homelessness and mental illness. Enforcement is one part of fighting these ailments. As he has said before, the Alberta government cannot arrest its way out of these problems. He said the 50 new officers will provide a necessary, reassuring presence on the streets. Ellis concluded by saying it will be a great day when these officers hit the streets and start making a difference in people’s lives. He thanked CPS for keeping people safe and protected. CPS Chief Constable Mark Neufeld said he would not be here if it were not for the Alberta government, municipal governments and police agencies who have come together to tackle complex problems fuelling public perceptions of the safety of public spaces. “It was eight months ago here in Calgary where we stood before our public and some of you to discuss these issues and we committed to finding ways to ensure Calgarians felt safe in public spaces, which includes our transit system,” said Neufeld. “We embarked on targeted operations both covertly and overtly, deploying as many resources as we could to address these concerns and to support our transit and bylaw partners to ensure our parks and pathways, transit system and all public spaces were safer for Calgarians.” Since January, Neufeld said officers working in these areas have laid more than 3,300 criminal charges, executed 5,600 warrants and issued more than 3,600 tickets related to work on and around the transit system and in public spaces. During this work, he said it “realized we have the tools to address violent offenders, but we lack the resources and the ability to sustain those efforts to address those who are causing people to feel unsafe and those perhaps who don’t cross into a serious criminal threshold.” Ellis followed up by saying police are needed to go into places and make them safe. “You cannot eliminate the role of the law enforcement community,” he said. “I think you have seen that with jurisdictions in the United States that went towards a defund the police model.” With many of these communities, he said they have shifted back to funding police. While he would not speak on opinions Calgary politicians have voiced, it is important to have law enforcement protected and funded. The Alberta government said on Tuesday it will be spending $8.3 million to enable the recruitment, training and deployment of 50 new Edmonton Police Service (EPS) officers. READ MORE: Alberta government to fund 50 new Edmonton Police Service officers“They will be strategically stationed in high crime areas such as the downtown core, transit corridors, and other problem areas,” said Ellis. “We know officer presence matters and having uniformed officers in these areas will help deter criminal activity and provide Edmontonians with a sense of safety and security as they go about their lives.”

Alberta government to fund 50 new Calgary Police Service officers

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