Internal survey polling leadership ‘deeply disturbing’: Calgary police chief

Calgary Police Chief Mark Neufeld said a leaked internal police survey that criticised his leadership is instigating division within the force.

Global News has obtained a copy of the 2024 Leadership Report Card survey, conducted by Leger Marketing and initiated by the Calgary Police Association (CPA).

The online survey was emailed to CPA members to gauge their perceptions of the leadership of the Calgary Police Service.

In it, several executive leaders were named, including superintendents and inspectors.

Neufeld received a “D” grade, while some others received more favorable reviews, including “A” and “B” grades.

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The chief said he welcomes and values feedback, but suggested the evaluation wasn’t done in a constructive way.

“Just putting out letter grades there doesn’t do much for people. I think talking to senior leaders over the last couple of days about their own experiences of this and their families’ experiences of it quite frankly has been heartbreaking. This has caused harm, it’s caused division.”

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Neufeld said he’s been subject to other engagement surveys throughout his career but called this one “deeply troubling”.

“My deep disappointment about the how of this is if we were to publish names of employees like this and rank them and do the naming and shaming like this, we would get a grievance that would come in at a thousand degrees – and that’s rightly so it should be that way and that’s what’s happened here.”

The Calgary Police Association’s John Orr said the survey was designed to help those in leadership positions.

“I appreciate that some people likely have some hurt feelings and i understand that, and it certainly wasn’t my intention to create that… But this is an opportunity. It’s an opportunity for leaders to get real feedback, constructive feedback, from the people they supervise and lead and a chance for real growth”.

Both Neufeld and the CPA said it was never intended for the online survey to be made public.

The survey was emailed to 2,200 CPA members and had a 37 per cent response rate.