Calgary’s Police Union Attempts to Intimidate City Council In Response To Potential Police Budget Cuts

Alberta Republic
Jul. 07, 2010

It appears as though the Calgary police union is attempting to intimidate the city's elected representatives after city council elected not to rule out police budget cuts that would cut five per cent from its 2011 budget.

The Calgary Herald has reported that the Calgary Police Association has said that if council proceeds with the cuts all downtown patrol beats should be axed.

The City is trying to deal with a $60 million dollar budget shortfall. Even with the cuts the city is still projecting a tax increase of 6.7 percent next year. The CBC has reported that the $800-million three-year police budget is the largest portion of the city's budget.

It is important to note that the Calgary Police Union has no authority to dictate the deployment of manpower. Secton 1.02 (b) of the Calgary Police Agreement recognizes that "it is the function of the Chief of Police to exercise the regular and customary functions of management, to direct the work and deploy manpower resources of the Calgary Police Service."

Section 1.00 of the same document outlines that the purpose of the agreement is to "stipulate the rates of pay and working conditions of those members covered by the Association." With this in mind it appears as though the Calgary Police Union is clearly overstepping its bounds while attempting to unduly influence an elected body that is directly accountable to the people.