New Calgary police chief takes the helm

CALGARY (660 NEWS) — A large crowd gathered inside the Calgary Central Library to welcome Mark Neufeld to his new role as Chief of the Calgary Police Service.
He has work cut out for him as he tries to tackle low morale in the force, concerning numbers of domestic-related homicides, and possible cuts after city council approved $60 million in cuts to the operating budget to alleviate rising property taxes on small businesses.

“We get it. It’s a tough time in Calgary right now,” Neufeld said.

“There’s a lot of people that are suffering because of the economy. There’s no doubt that the city is going to have some tough decisions about tightening the budget and everybody is going to have to do their part.”

This concludes today’s ceremony. Thank you to the community for sharing this moment & welcoming @neufeld_mark to #Calgary. To the @calgarylibrary – thanks for providing a beautiful venue! #yyc #WeAreCPS pic.twitter.com/j47GFSUuIA

— Calgary Police (@CalgaryPolice) June 10, 2019

Neufeld’s predecessor Roger Chaffin officially retired in January. He was responsible for introducing a tenure policy that mandates a term for constables working in specialty units. This was one of the leading causes of low morale in the force according to results from the Calgary Police Commission survey in 2018. Neufeld said it is one of the issues they will be looking at closely.

“What have been the unintended consequences of the implementation of that policy and is there any way of rehabilitating it, or did we just make a mistake?” he ventured. “I think we are big enough to look at that and maybe go another way.”

Today, we held our Change of Command Ceremony to welcome @neufeld_mark as Chief Constable. Check out scenes from today’s ceremony. #yyc #WeAreCPS pic.twitter.com/3JYdp2ViLm

— Calgary Police (@CalgaryPolice) June 10, 2019

Prior to assuming leadership of CPS, Neufeld was chief of the Camrose Police Service and former president of the Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police. He also spent several years with the Edmonton Police Service in various roles and had two stints working for the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team.

“I think one of the things where we can really improve is our strategic approaching to policing and law enforcement, and seeing the things that are coming, ahead of time,” he pointed out.

With files from Kayla Bruch.