High-visibility police presence leads to decrease in public calls for service downtown
Yesterday, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, we continued Safer Calgary – Operation Order, with another focused operation aimed at enhancing public safety in priority areas downtown, including the East Village, Stephen Avenue, Century Gardens Park, Central Memorial Park, the area around the Chinook LRT and the area around the Sunalta LRT.
Accompanied by our partners with Calgary Community Safety, Transit Public Safety, Alberta Health Services - Emergency Health Services and the Alberta Sheriffs, police and peace officers conducted strategic patrols, focused enforcement and community outreach, connecting individuals with referrals to support services where needed.
“This is a sustained commitment to restoring safety in our public spaces, by connecting people with supports and enforcing the law where we need to,” says Chief Katie McLellan. “I want to thank all of our community, business, law enforcement and social agency partners for their sustained and collaborative approach to creating safe public spaces for everyone to enjoy.”
The proactive, high-visibility police presence led to a decrease in the number of publicly reported disorder calls for service, in comparison to the previous two days. Similarly, proactive officer-generated calls for service increased significantly during Operation Order, when compared to the previous 40 days.
“Every Calgarian deserves to feel safe in their community,” says Mike Ellis, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services. “Through phase two of Operation Order, Alberta Sheriffs worked alongside the Calgary Police Service and transit peace officers to strengthen safety in the downtown core through a visible, proactive presence. This was about more than enforcement - it was about restoring order, supporting vulnerable individuals, and ensuring accountability. By working together across agencies, we are making Calgary’s streets safer and more welcoming for everyone.”
“Calgarians have been clear: they want to feel safe on our streets, on our transit system and in our communities,” says Mayor Jeromy Farkas. “That means we must work together to be tough on crime, and even tougher on the root causes of crime. I want to thank our remarkable women and men in uniform who are on the front lines, doing their jobs, keeping us safe each and every day. Together, we will make sure this city is the safest and best place in Canada to live, to work in, or to raise a family.”
In addition to daily enforcement from our Community Engagement Response Team (CERT) and patrol officers, we continue to identify opportunities for additional focused operations where we can redistribute resources from around the Service to enhance these efforts.
Quick Stats
- Calls attended: 269
- People charged: 9
- Charges laid: 25
- 16 per cent were charges under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act
- 32 per cent were for failure to comply with an undertaking, release order, breaches or conditional sentence orders
- 24 per cent were for weapons
- Summonses issued: 91
- Warrants executed: 133
- Proactive community engagements: 612
- Social agency referrals: 132
The operation also resulted in the seizure of three different types of drugs, knives, a baton, bear spray and a chain fashioned into a weapon.
Operation highlights
- Officers connected with a woman who has been struggling to obtain housing and connected her with appropriate resources.
- Officers encountered an unconscious man along Dermot Baldwin Way, believed to be overdosing. Officers administered Naloxone, alerted Drop-In Centre staff and called for Emergency Health Services. Sadly, despite life-saving efforts, the man was declared deceased.
- Officers arrested a man for public intoxication and located fentanyl in his hand during a search.
- Officers and the Alberta Sheriffs located an individual wanted on 13 warrants (seven of them criminal). The individual was transported to Arrest Processing.
- Officers near the Chinook LRT found a man in medical distress and administered Naloxone, with additional doses provided by a nearby construction crew. The man regained consciousness before Emergency Health Services arrived, and the patient declined transport to the hospital.
- During a call for service, officers engaged a man who was using drugs and who became aggressive when asked to leave. A search led to the seizure of a knife and a chain fashioned into a weapon.
- Our Calgary Community Safety partners located an unoccupied encampment along the CPKN rail line, containing 21 propane tanks and a large amount of debris, including syringes, discarded clothing and plastics. Peace officers co-ordinated with cleanup contractors and CPKN to use heavy machinery to access and clear the site.
