Calgary Police Service (CPS) is the municipal police service of the City of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It is the largest municipal police service in Alberta and third largest municipal force in Canada behind the Toronto Police Service and the Montreal Police Service.

History

The Calgary Police Service was founded on February 7, 1885, and initially consisted of two constables led by Chief Jack Ingram. On October 8, 1993, Constable Rick Sonnenberg was preparing a spike strip to stop a stolen vehicle when he was struck by the fleeing motorist and killed. In the wake of his death and fundraising from the Sonnenberg family, the force acquired a helicopter and formed the Helicopter Air Watch for Community Safety (HAWCS) unit in 1995. In 2003, a second helicopter was purchased, expanding the unit. In 1995, the Calgary Police Commission appointed Christine Silverberg as chief of police, making her the first woman to lead a large police force in Canada. Silverberg served as chief until 2000, when she retired from the police service. Shortly after Christmas in 2013, two Calgary police officers and their supervisor detained Godfred Addai after his car became stuck in a snowbank. The officers then released Addai, who was wearing light clothing, in an under-construction community three kilometres from his home, providing him with no aid or clothing despite freezing temperatures and advising police dispatchers to ignore Addai's 9-1-1 calls as he was "just a drunken fool". After Addai called 9-1-1 twice, Constable Trevor Lindsay attended the scene and tased Addai before being captured by a HAWCS helicopter video camera repeatedly punching a handcuffed Addai in the head and back. Addai was charged with assaulting a peace officer, but was acquitted at trial. Cst. Lindsay was later convicted of aggravated assault for an unrelated 2015 incident when he threw a handcuffed detainee to the ground in a police station parking lot, fracturing his skull. Cst. Lindsay resigned from the Calgary Police Service in 2020. In the early 2010s, in response to regional applicant shortages, the Calgary Police Service briefly accepted applications from international police officers who were not already landed immigrants, permanent residents, or citizens of Canada. The force had ended the program by 2017. In May 2019, CPS has considered relaunching its auxiliary cadet program, which was launched in 2013 and disbanded in April 2019 due to union concerns on staffing and safety. On New Year's Eve, 2020, Sgt. Andrew Harnett, who had been employed by the Calgary Police Service for 12 years, stopped a car after noticing the vehicle's licence plate didn't match its registration. As Harnett and two other officers who had responded to the traffic stop prepared to arrest the vehicle's passenger on an outstanding warrant, the driver fled the scene with Harnett holding onto the driver's side door. Harnett was dragged 427 metres before falling off of the vehicle and being struck by oncoming traffic.

Line of duty deaths

Since its formation in 1885, twelve Calgary Police officers have been killed in the line of duty.

Organization

Rank structure

Divisions

The CPS is divided into the following sections:

Equipment

Vehicles

Most vehicles used by the Calgary Police Service are imported from the United States and use the black and white colour scheme common of police vehicles in the United States, due to the increased recognition of this color scheme as used by police. Vehicles currently in use include: