The Calgary Police Service is seeking a funding increase of over $324 million over the course of the next four years.
The service says the allotment would be geared towards the hiring of 309 new officers, as well as maintenance for existing infrastructure.
“We’re only asking for what we can hire and train,” CPS Chief Katie McClellan says, “To be honest and to be totally transparent, we probably need double the amount of police officers were asking for.”
McClellan adds the service needs more officers to bring their population-to-police ratio back up to 153 officers per 100-thousand residents.
The current level sits at 144, which police say will still be well below the national average by 2030.
City councillor Raj Dhaliwal says, “one officer serving 600 Calgarians, that to me personally is just too much (of a gap).”
While personnel is a major ask, the largest budgetary price tag for police concerns managing the force’s fleet, which the chief says has become significantly more expensive in recent years.
“A couple years ago a police car would have cost $44,000. Now its closer to 80 .. and that just happened over the last couple years. And in respect to the tariffs, we’ve been in conversations with the city and were having conversations that we need to be aware of it, and it needs to be built in somehow.”
McClellan notes that no budget expenditures are being planned to build new facilities, but to update existing ones.
Mayor Jeromy Farkas says he has taken notice of the need for updated resources.
“When we talk about the infrastructure deficit in the city of Calgary, its not just sports or recreational facilities and water pipes. It’s also the facilities that our Calgary police service rely on. So part of their 73% ask from the Calgary police commission is to be able to catch up on properly maintaining and catching up on some of the deferred maintenance that existed,” Farkas says.
The city of Calgary’s 2027 budget is set to be released Nov. 10.