Alberta Sheriffs leave downtown, Calgary police aim to fill gap

Calgary police say homicides in the city are down 38 per cent compared to this time last year.

The Calgary Police Commission hosted it’s May meeting Wednesday, analyzing crime trends and the departure of Alberta Sheriffs from downtown Calgary.

“Realistically, with the number of resources that were provided by the sheriffs, it allowed us to cover more territory,” Deputy Chief Chad Tawfic said.

As part of a pilot project, Alberta Sheriffs were injected into Calgary’s downtown core in February.

With May 31, marking the end of their tenure in the city, some are concerned with the gap they’re leaving behind.

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According to Tawfic, new data could enable the Calgary Police Service (CPS) to fill the void.

“One of the things on Operation Crest and the work with the sheriffs: it wasn’t just our internal data,” he said. “We were liaising with the downtown association and other business groups in the core to get their feedback.

“We know we have to cover a lot of ground, but we’re ready to do that.”

Since April 10, CPS has received more than 1,900 calls for service on Calgary Transit.

According to a new report, the calls led to 65 arrest warrants and resulted in 443 criminal charges.

“It’s a combination of being in the right places with the right resources. We’d like to take a data driven approach and be where we need to be,” said Tawfic. “If that involves adjusting our resources deployment, whether it be in the downtown core or elsewhere, we’ll look at that.”

According to CPS, shootings are also down from 2022, but a margin of 28 per cent, while 139 crime guns have beens seized so far this year.