In February, Calgary’s police chief, Katie McLellan, was reported to be preparing a four-year plan to hire 660 more officers. On Sept. 23, the staffing request presented at the Calgary Police Commission’s public session carried 309 officers and 214 civilian staff, according to reporting from the meeting. The commission’s posted agenda and reports for that session contain neither figure.
That gap between what was said and what was filed matters more than it looks. Council takes up the City of Calgary’s 2027 to 2030 budget in November, and the largest staffing question in it currently lives in news coverage rather than in a public document.
Key facts
- The Calgary Police Commission held a public session on Sept. 23, 2026, according to the commission’s published agenda for that meeting.
- Statistics Canada reported 180 police officers per 100,000 population in Canada as of May 15, 2025, in Police Resources in Canada, released May 21, 2026.
- The City of Calgary says its 2027 to 2030 service plans and budgets will be developed and approved in November 2026.
The police service has made a serious case for more officers
The service’s argument deserves a full hearing, and it rests on more than a headcount. Deputy Chief Cliff O’Brien told commissioners that between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. on Sept. 15, officers took 915 calls for service, roughly 76 an hour, and that at least 330 of them needed two or more units, as reported from the meeting. He said that in one district, fewer than half of the available call-out shifts were filled even at double time.
The service said it had looked at whether other units could give up officers to patrol. The chief’s summary was brief. “There are no extra teams,” she said.
The civilian half of the request is the most sensible part of it. The 214 civilian positions include crime analysts, lawyers and mechanics, which would let sworn officers stop doing work that doesn’t need a badge. The service’s own comparison, as reported, puts Calgary at about 144 officers per 100,000 residents. Statistics Canada’s latest national rate is 180.
On that evidence, a request that shrank from 660 officers to 309 could be a service trimming its own ask. That reading may be right.
Nothing on the public record explains the missing 351 officers
By our count, 351 officers separate the February figure from the September request. Nothing the commission has posted says what became of them. Either the plan was cut or part of it was moved into a later budget cycle, and those two outcomes carry very different bills.
A cut means the service now believes 309 officers and 214 civilians will cover the pressure its deputy chief described. A deferral means council would be approving the first instalment of a larger plan without seeing the rest of the invoice. The public record doesn’t yet say which, and no cost for the 523 positions has been published.
None of this suggests anyone has hidden anything. The February number was a reported plan, never a filed one, and plans change once finance staff get hold of them. Public safety is the first job of a city, and a service that can’t fill patrol shifts at double time has a real problem. That is exactly why its request should reach council as a document with a price attached, so the debate can be about the numbers rather than about whose account of a meeting is right.
Council needs the full staffing plan in writing before November
The record still doesn’t show the full four-year plan with its cost attached, and it doesn’t say whether the 351 officers were dropped or deferred. The document that settles them is the service’s 2027 to 2030 staffing and budget submission. The Calgary Police Service holds it, and the Calgary Police Commission can put it on the public agenda at its next meeting.
