Calgary police ask for $20.8M budget top-up

Calgary's police chief says he needs more money from city hall to fight crime and relieve the stress of frontline officers.

During this week's budget debate — where the order of the day is finding savings — the police service is asking for a $20.8 million boost to help it meet Calgarians' needs.

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Chief Roger Chaffin told city council on Monday that drug seizures are up, auto thefts in Calgary are leading the country and what he calls chaotic crimes, like shootings, are increasing.

He says after a couple of years of finding savings, CPS needs more money to hire more officers so the service can better handle the crimes they're seeing.

"We're at that point now where, you know, we simply are going to have to either change our service levels or grow a little bit and what we're asking right now is to grow," said Chaffin. 

Service cuts

He said without a budget increase, some things just won't get done. 

"We would have to reorganize the department and make sure that we would focus first and foremost on the frontline and make sure that would still be there for Calgarians," he said. 

"But what you'd see is a much lower service level at other things in the service, and we'd have to understand what's not getting done if we don't get the budget. That's not a threat, that's just simply a reality."

Chaffin wants to hire 48 new officers.

Mayor Naheed Nenshi supports the request for more cash.

"In this case, I actually think both the commission and the service has been very, very responsible in saying 'look, we're paring this down to what is actually needed,'" he said.

Cuts elsewhere can hit police

Nenshi said all departments were asked to hold the line on their budgets, but that if there were additional funds required, to make that request. Only the police and Calgary Neighbourhoods — seeking more money for the low-income transit pass — asked for more money.

Chaffin said when other services are cut, it's often the police that have to deal with the repercussions. 

"Everything that doesn't get dealt with in the public system — mental health care, health, education, social service — if there's not resources in those areas, it almost always falls to us," he said. 

"When that phone gets picked up and someone says 'we want someone to deal with this problem,' we're the one group that can't say no, we go to that call and we have to deal with things that are really difficult."

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