The Government of Alberta provided details on funding for 50 Calgary Police Service officers, first announced just before this year’s provincial election.

In April, the province said they would provide funding for 50 additional street level officers in both Calgary and Edmonton.  On Dec. 12, the province detailed $8.3 million in funding for Edmonton’s contingent of officers, and details were shared Dec. 13 in Calgary.  

Earlier this year, during the City of Calgary’s budget adjustment deliberations, Calgary police Chief Mark Neufeld said they were working through a funding agreement with the province, but he hoped that officers would be ready by mid-2024.

Alberta Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis said that they will do whatever it takes to keep people safe.

“We know that Calgary is a great place to live, to work to raise a family, but there’s no denying that the increase of crime and social disorder that began during the pandemic has not gone away,” he said.

Calgary’s share of the funding is $4.16 million.  The reason for the initial disparity in funding with Edmonton is in the differing recruiting cycles, according to Minister Ellis. Chief Neufeld said that they wouldn’t be getting any less funding than Edmonton, they would just get it at different times. Ellis also confirmed that the provincial funding would be continuous and is not one-time funding.

The province will allocate $1.1 million in funding for salaries and benefits, $2.5 million for one-time costs like vehicles, radios and workstations, and $550,000 for ongoing technology costs.

“Today’s announcement obviously is a welcome one,” said Chief Neufeld.

“Calgary is by no means alone on this journey to improve public safety and our safety and our public spaces.”

Teams deployed to deal with ‘high system users’

Chief Neufeld said that the new funding would go to forward-facing officers in public spaces, and the new units would offer greater capacity to attend to some of what the CPS refers to as “high system users.”

The first tranche of 25 officers will likely be recruited in January, Chief Neufeld said. He said they’re going to prioritize deployment in Districts 1 (downtown), 5 (Saddle Ridge) and 6 (Fairview – Southeast).

“The addition of these new officers is going to help us to create several new teams in the city, whose primary role will be to focus on individuals involved in committing crimes obviously, but also on those high systems users across our city and working with our partners in the judicial and social support areas,” Neufeld said.

“We’re going to aim to provide a more individualized case management approach to effect real change in the lives of these individuals, and to lessen the impact that they’re having on the communities in Calgary.”

Chief Neufeld said that they would also continue intelligence-led deployments. Those will focus on areas around the city where there’s increased social disorder. The goal is to be nimble enough to move around with criminal elements in Calgary.

Minister Ellis said that they’re committed to providing a full slate of resources to deal with crime in Alberta’s cities and towns.

“The rising crime rates have emphasized the need to address underlying issues such as addiction and homelessness and mental health,” he said.

“We know that enforcement is only part of a strategy to address these complex and often related issues. As I and others have said before, we cannot arrest our way out of this problem and arrest our way out to community safety.”

Boots on the ground are important: Minister Ellis

Still, Minister Ellis said that officer presence matters on Calgary streets.

“If you are an offender, you are less likely to commit a crime knowing that you see a uniform presence officer in and around where you are,” he said.

“Not only that, but it does give citizens when you see though, a sense of safety, they feel safer and I think that is something that we have to take into contact.”

A recent report on an Alberta Sheriffs pilot project in the downtown showed that the perception of safety wasn’t improved for a majority of survey respondents, despite seeing more uniform presence in the downtown.

Mark Garner, executive director for the Calgary Downtown Association said the announcement was a good step forward for safety in the downtown. He said over the past few weeks alone, they’ve seen 26 storefront windows broken at a time when they’re trying to build consumer and commuter confidence for the holidays.

“We’re pleased from the investments that the province has made and relief that a large percentage of those officers are going to be focused in our area. We need that increased presence,” he said.

He said they’ve heard from a variety of their members and other downtown stakeholders that having a dedicated patrol on certain streets would have a significant impact on the area. That was echoed by Chinatown business owners in a downtown mall, the target of recent break-ins and robberies, who recalled a time when they had a dedicated officer for their location.

Garner also said that enforcement is only one component of dealing with the issue. He said that working with Crown prosecutors to make sure that people weren’t going through a revolving door in the courts was critical. Further, the necessary social supports had to be provided to help many of these repeat offenders.

That’s where Calgary city councillor Jasmine Mian said the province really needs to step up. Different societal challenges are driving much of the crime in Calgary, Coun. Mian said, and citizens are seeing it play out in their communities and when they ride transit. She said she’s not opposed to more enforcement.

“We’re happy to see additional enforcement and as the city we are always there to provide that. But until we see real movement on addictions and mental health and real movement on housing, I don’t think we’re ever going to see any results to these issues,” Coun. Mian said.

“I think that there’s just a lot more work that we need to see from the province on some of these issues if we’re actually going to move the needle for Calgarians.”