Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas wants to bring a police station back to the city’s downtown core, with plans to introduce a motion to kick-start the process next week.
The motion calls on city administration to work with the Calgary Police Commission, the Calgary Police Service (CPS) and the government of Alberta to study the feasibility of reintroducing a police station to the downtown core.
According to the motion, that study would also review options for facilities in the core, including city-owned or city-leased properties “suitable for adaptive reuse, new construction, and public/private partnership models.”
“Downtown is disproportionately impacted when it comes to social disorder and violent incidents,” Farkas told reporters Monday. “Having that physical presence downtown is a first needed step for us to be able to actually get ahead of this issue.”
Downtown Calgary has been without a downtown police station since CPS closed its district office in Victoria Park in November 2017.
Three years later, CPS moved its arrest processing unit out of the downtown core to a new facility in Spyhill.
Then-Ward 11 councillor Farkas worked with former Ward 7 councillor Druh Farrell in 2019 to review the closure of the Victoria Park police station, and include potential options for a downtown station.
Farkas said he hopes for his new motion to build on the work administration did on the matter.
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“Many of those locations are just as valid today, however, the downtown landscape has changed in the past 10 years, the need has only grown far more acute,” Farkas said. “We are not going to be able to address Calgary’s downtown safety issues without a co-ordinated response that includes a downtown police station.”
Farkas said Calgary is one of the only major cities without a downtown police station.
Currently, CPS, along with the City of Calgary, operates a “safety hub” in the East Village where uniformed officers and outreach teams can co-ordinate on issues, but it is not a reporting location.
Instead, Calgarians can report “non-emergency police matters” at the CPS Downtown Community Counter, but the space is only operated during daytime hours and isn’t staffed as a full district office.
“Whether that comes through infrastructure like a police station, or resources like increased patrols, presence is what matters most to businesses downtown,” said Andrew Doudican with the Calgary Downtown Association.
The mayor says he has secured a “super majority” on council to sign on to his motion with support from councillors Dan McLean, Mike Jamieson, John Pantazopoulos, Rob Ward, Landon Johnston, Kim Tyers, DJ Kelly, Harrison Clark, Andrew Yule and Andre Chabot.
Ward 8 Coun. Nathaniel Schmidt and Ward 7 Coun. Myke Atkinson, the councillors who represent the city’s downtown, notably didn’t sign on to the motion.
According to Atkinson, improving safety in the downtown will require more than a downtown police station, including more resources for officers, outreach teams and changes to how service is delivered.
“Buildings don’t deliver safety,” he said Monday. “We need to make sure we’re funding the officers on the ground who are doing the work rather than diverting our attention to a building.”
In a statement to Global News, Calgary Police Commission chair Amtul Siddiqui said CPS has taken “meaningful steps to strengthen its presence downtown” through initiatives like the counter and safety hubs.
However, Siddiqui also said “cumulative pressures” on the police service from a growing city “can no longer be absorbed by existing resources, and the service’s upcoming request for the next four-year budget includes resources required to “sustain current service levels.”
“The discussion of a downtown police station would represent an additional operational and financial requirement beyond existing budgetary pressures,” Siddiqui’s statement said. “Together with Council, we’re looking at all possible solutions to address the complex challenges downtown and continue keeping Calgarians safe.”
Farkas said he hopes a new downtown police station could include community supports and partner with other agencies to provide amenities that were removed from the downtown core with the closure of the Eau Claire YMCA.
The mayor said he hopes to have more information by the November budget discussions, to get shovels in the ground on a new police station this year.
“I will be challenging my council colleagues as well as the broader community to get moving on this with the same gusto and urgency we brought to the water main replacement,” Farkas told reporters.
Farkas’ motion will be introduced at the next executive committee meeting for a technical review before a debate by city council as a whole.
I find it bizarre the councillors representing downtown haven’t signed on, even though their district has the most need. Do they think the Police should work out of their cars?
We desperately need one in Sunalta. The station and surrounding community has become overwhelmed with fentanyl junkies. I counted 4 on my walk home from the station. There’s a community garden that had benches with passed out junkies 90% of the time. I’ve found used syringes in the park and garden on more than one occasion.