Calgary police say requests from retail sector for security assistance are increasing

Retailers are seeking help from the Calgary police as they try to address their security concerns. And they're willing to pay cash.

The Calgary Police Service said it's seeing an increase in requests from retailers and mall owners for what are known as pay duty officers.

Under the program rules, CPS officers can be hired for approximately $150 per hour. Interested officers can sign up for the additional work, which happens outside of their regular shift hours.

It's not uncommon, especially during the busy holiday shopping season, to see a police officer walking through a mall or patrolling a crowded parking lot.

But pay duty requests to have an officer stand at the door of a busy jewelry or electronics store are outside the scope of the program.

Sgt. Quentin Blindenbach with the CPS pay duty office said officers are not to be used to simply replace security personnel.

"Those requests that do come in to us with that criteria would get denied because we wouldn't want to be seen as being able to replace a loss prevention officer for those businesses that could afford police instead of security guards or LPOs," he said.

Blindenbach said there's a common thread behind the increasing number of requests for pay duty officers.

"They're struggling to find staff and to find security guards. I'm not sure where they all went during COVID, or if there's just a bigger demand for them now."

Security concerns growing

The president of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, Deborah Yedlin, said security concerns have been growing in the business community.

"What we're hearing from businesses through the business improvement areas, is that those issues of safety and security have been constantly increasing for the last three years," said Yedlin.

She said if patrons don't feel secure, they may not shop in an establishment and that will affect the business's bottom line. So naturally, Yedlin said they'll reach out to the police if they can't find security guards for their needs.

"Unfortunately, it is something that is not so easy to address as quickly as we need to address it."

Yedlin said there are challenges in finding private security guards as the demands have gone up and there's a labour shortage.

Demand high as it's ever been

Police Chief Mark Neufeld spoke to city council during November's budget debate about the additional demands for pay duty officers.

He said police services across the country are seeing requests for help from the retail sector.

As an example, Neufeld said a downtown grocery store is finding its security cannot keep up with the demands and wanted CPS to help.

"They're saying, 'We'd pay you whatever you want to put cops in there.' We don't have the ability to do that. And I'm hopeful that's not our future," said Neufeld.

Officers sign up for the additional pay duty. But he said the strain on police officers right now in terms of workload is taking a toll, so not as many officers are stepping forward for that extra pay.

"We're to the point now where we have a difficult time with pay duties for things like Flames games and that type of thing. There will be times where we don't fill them, which is not something that's very normal for the police service," said Neufeld.

"The demand on police is as high or higher than it's ever been."