Calgary’s police chief said it’s time to re-examine a greater physical presence downtown, and it could eventually expand into a front counter service once again.

In a year-end interview with LWC, Calgary police Chief Mark Neufeld said that with the evolution of their facilities, they have fewer police movements in the downtown now. The Calgary Police Service (CPS) Arrest Processing Unit was moved, and they no longer have a presence in the Andrew Davison building on 6 Avenue SE.

CPS District 1 has a large operation in Ramsay, and Chief Neufeld said they thought they could bridge the gap in deployment after the Victoria Park station was closed back in 2017. It’s something they’ve been monitoring over the past few years. They also put resources into  Stephen Avenue and East Village Safety Hubs.

“I think we’re, again, one of the only municipalities that doesn’t have a police footprint in the downtown, he said.

Another thing he said they were waiting for was a final decision on the Event Centre location. Chief Neufeld said that it could change traffic patterns in the downtown.

“So, you want to be careful what you commit to just in case you get sort of hemmed in, or you end up in a spot that is not very opportune for movement of emergency vehicles,” he said.

“With some of those questions now being answered, I think, we can go back to that.”

For now, Chief Neufeld said they would be initiating conversations with downtown business owners for their input.

Calgary Downtown Association Executive Director Mark Garner, who is also co-chair of the Downtown Safety Table, said this is something they’ve been advocating for.

“We’re starting to see development applications coming in for more hotels and development of parking lots with residential. When you add this level of intensification of people living downtown, you need to add additional police resources,” he said.

“That deployment of service needs to be in this neighbourhood going forward and the sooner we start planning for that, the better off we’ll be.”

Evolving police needs

Garner said they were happy to hear that District 1 (Downtown) would be one of the focus areas for the 50 officers that received provincial funding last week. He said the presence alone can make a big difference.

Over the past few weeks, Garner said they’ve tallied $500,000 in window damages, including specially-made, rounded windows at the Simons location at the CORE Shopping Centre. Those were $200,000 alone.

Garner believes beat cops would have a big impact on curbing some of this property damage and social disorder.

“This (downtown) is the key economic driver for not only the city but for this province,” he said.

“A downtown police station is mandatory and needed based on the intensification and growth.”

Still, a holistic approach is needed, Garner said. One that doesn’t just push people out of the downtown, but also provides them an opportunity to reach social supports.

That’s the approach Beltline Neighbourhoods Association’s (BNA) Peter Oliver would like to see. When the Victoria Park station closed in 2017, the BNA fought to get a greater police presence back. In a blog post from several years ago, they talked about some of the correlative traffic Chief Neufeld had referenced. They referred to it as “freebie” police presence.

While Oliver said they’d welcome a renewed police presence in the core and Beltline areas, the needs have evolved.

“I think simply reopening the police station, what we might have tried, I don’t know, four or five years ago when there was this debate, I think we would do something differently today than what we might have done back then,” Oliver told LWC.

He said we know so much more about the situation and its relationship to affordability, housing and mental health and addictions. Plus, he said a recent pilot project with Alberta Sheriffs said that uniformed presence isn’t always enough to improve safety or the perception of safety.

Can’t arrest our way out of it

Oliver said he believes the Calgary police know now that enforcement isn’t the only option. The CPS has embraced a call diversion strategy that’s already sent 30,000 calls to different agencies in 2023.

“Police aren’t alone going to fix the problems that we are experiencing downtown and in communities, quite frankly, across the city,” Oliver said.

“I would hope that any new police station plans would also include complementary plans and staffing for social services.”

Ward 7 Coun. Terry Wong said he’s regularly been in the ear of CPS asking questions on when they might consider a renewed presence in the downtown. Even if it’s just a satellite office for the area.

Right now, Wong said there’s a challenge with downtown access from the District 1 Ramsay station due to the railroad tracks in the area – a situation further complicated by a future Green Line LRT. He said they’ve discussed another District 1 office or a redistribution of geographic boundaries for the different districts.

“The (downtown) merchants particularly want to know that there’s a police station they can go to quickly,” he said.

“If the perpetrator’s gone, it doesn’t help them. They want to see someone the moment when it happens.”

It’s early in a potential process, Wong said. They’d still need to do further research on the need, and then look into potential land assembly if a station approach is warranted. Wong said he wouldn’t expect any action until next November’s budget adjustment to get things moving along. A potential new space is still a ways off, Wong said.

“It would likely be a new council that’s going to have to deal with that,” he said.

It would require work through the police commission, based on CPS recommendations, he said. A follow-up question to CPS said they would be examining a community-based model, with the potential ability to expand into a front counter service.

Chief Neufeld acknowledged there’s work left before anything concrete moves ahead.

“I think that is a decision that’s coming forward to be able to say, is this something that we want,” Neufeld said.

“I’m not going to presume the answer, but from my perspective, I think it’s something that would be helpful.”