While overall employee satisfaction among Calgary police officers has been on a steady rise since 2022, both the Calgary Police Service (CPS) executive and the union representing sworn members say more officers are needed to keep numbers improving.

The Calgary Police Service Employee Engagement Survey was released this week and discussed at the Oct. 29 Calgary Police Commission (CPC) meeting.

Overall, it showed that CPS employees (both sworn and civilian) showed their highest engagement index score (59) since 2019, and second-highest since 2016. The Employee Engagement Index is made up of four components:

– I am proud to say I work for CPS
– I am satisfied with my current job
– I am motivated to go above and beyond my basic job description
– Policing / working at CPS is a career I would recommend to someone suited for it.

Still, it showed the biggest concern among staff is an inadequate level of staffing. Only six per cent of the 1,112 sworn officers who responded agreed that CPS was adequately staffed. That’s the lowest level since 2022.

Calgary police Chief Katie McLellan said they’re pleased to see the overall numbers heading in the right direction.

“Really, not a lot of surprises with respect to the comments for staffing. We’ve been talking about that for quite some time,” she said.

Calgary Police Association president John Orr said the overall numbers are encouraging, but more officers are needed to keep it headed in that direction. Currently, there are 3,242 full-time equivalent employees with CPS, with 2,334 officers.

“I think there’s a couple of driving factors, and I think they were quite clear in the results, that are keeping it lower than it could be. I think the primary one is a lack of staffing,” he told LWC.

“But again, when you’re chronically understaffed, it leads to burnout, it leads to overall lower morale.”

While the survey does show an increase in engagement and CPS personnel’s perception that Calgary is a safe city to live in, it also shows a drop in satisfaction in CPS ability to deliver services to Calgarians.

“Our members don’t feel they have time to do proper investigative follow-up, because when you’re just going from call to call to call,” he said.

“You’re almost just putting out fires in some situations, when really, Calgarians deserve police officers to spend time with them, to listen to thoroughly investigate their concerns. It’s a difficult thing to do when you don’t have enough staff to allow it.”

Addressing the additional Calgary police staff

Orr acknowledged that the service currently contends with 1 in 5 workers being on leave or having accommodative work, and that makes the staffing challenge more difficult. He noted, however, that the number is typical across police forces across Canada, and they need to hire with that in mind.

“We need to hire with the understanding that we are going to have people off. It’s just going to happen,” Orr said.

“In Calgary, unfortunately, we are already so far behind the majority of the country when it comes to cop-to-pop ratios that we’re starting from behind.”

Chief McLellan couldn’t put a specific number on the officers required to ensure staffing needs were met, but said that they will need more. They’ll be asking for them leading up to Calgary’s next four-year budget cycle.

“We can’t put a definitive number on that number right now, but in the very near future, probably in the new year, we will be able to come forward with a number that is based on data and justification, to be able to come and say this, this is what we need and why we need it,” she said.

Newly sworn-in Mayor Jeromy Farkas said that public safety would be a priority for this current Calgary city council, though he didn’t specifically say that meant more boots on the street.

“We heard loud and clear from Calgarians that Calgarians don’t feel as safe as they need to be in their neighbourhoods, on the streets, on transit. So we’re going to be continuing to drive investment, and not just being tough on crime, but also tough on the causes of crime,” he said Wednesday evening after being sworn in.

“It’s important to invest in enforcement. It’s important to invest in immediate measures around safety and security, but we also need to get to root causes. So, it’s working from both the enforcement and prevention angle that’s going to be able to address this issue.”