The Communities First Party and its mayoral candidate, Sonya Sharp, got the municipal election endorsement of the Calgary Police Association (CPA), largely hinged on the delivery of a promised 500 new officers.
Sharp, along with several Communities First candidates, made the announcement alongside CPA brass at their northeast Calgary office on Oct. 2, 2025.
CPA President John Orr said that it was unprecedented for them to endorse 10 candidates in an upcoming election. He said the party’s promise of 500 new Calgary police officers would bolster police ranks for a job he said has become more challenging in the city over the past several years, “mainly due to neglect.”
“They get it. They are responding to a call for assistance from frontline police officers,” Orr said.
“They are sending a message that they want the Chief and commission to create a plan to restore operational strength and rebuild the service, in keeping with Calgary’s status as one of the largest cities in Canada, and they are committed to securing the necessary funding to make this plan a reality.”
Orr said that the number of sworn officers compared to every 100,000 citizens has dropped and is well below the national average. According to Statistics Canada, the national average in 2023 was 178 officers per 100,000, based on sworn officers (not including civilian personnel). Calgary’s ratio is 152 per 100,000 based on an estimated population of 1.4 million people. (Calgary’s recent budget estimated the Calgary population at nearly 1.6 million).
Meanwhile, according to the Calgary Police Service’s most recent posted Crime Severity Index, that number sits at 63.3. It’s been on a steady decline since 2022, their document reads, and “well below the national average.”
No timeline or anticipated cost for new officers
The typical cost to bring on a new sworn officer is between $100,000 and $125,000, meaning 500 new officers could cost Calgary taxpayers up to $62.5 million.
Sharp said that funding can be found in the existing City of Calgary budget, and it wouldn’t be an added cost to taxpayers. Though, until it gets put before a future council, the timeline on delivery of such a promise is a bit iffy.
“The last three years, councillor (Andre) Chabot, councillor (Dan) McLean, and councillor (Terry) Wong and I found over $170 million worth of savings that didn’t affect one frontline service,” Sharp said.
“So, every time you find money, $2.5 million in the city manager’s office, you think to yourself, ‘how much of that money can support frontline services? How much of that can train a police officer, train a firefighter, and we need to be very, I would say, surgical when it comes to looking at the budget and finding money. It can be found.”
A recent memo from the Calgary Police Commission (CPC) indicated that 20 per cent of officers are either on leave or being accommodated, and that it still has the planned officers for 2026. The memo also stated that it lacks the capacity to find and train additional members.
Orr also acknowledged there are challenges in recruiting officers, something former Chief Mark Neufeld mentioned earlier this year. Further, the CPS has had to look overseas in the past to attract quality candidates to work locally. The CPA president said that with appropriate funding and a supportive management team, he’s confident they can attract the right number of officers and do it within the next budget cycle (2027-2030).
“We have to become, as we once were, the police service of choice in Canada for potential recruits, and right now, we’re not,” Orr said.
“Right now, we are losing officers to other agencies. We’re having a difficult time attracting them from other areas, because other agencies are offering more, more in terms of working conditions, more in terms of compensation, sometimes it’s holidays. But Calgary has fallen behind, so we need to become the police service of choice.”
Mayoral candidate Jeff Davison has also pledged to add up to 200 new officers.
