Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs
Calgary community peace officers will temporarily fall under the command of the police service after a request from the provincial government to municipalities across Alberta in an effort to tackle the distribution of fentanyl.
On Feb. 14, Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis sent a letter to cities, towns and police chiefs across the province, including Calgary and Edmonton, asking for deployment of community, bylaw and peace officers to be led by the police on a temporary basis.In that confidential letter, obtained by Global News, Ellis said the effects of fentanyl and illicit drug use have given rise to “serious health and wellness issues,” and as minister, he is “obligated to take steps to address these issues.”“I am formally requesting that you immediately begin working with the police leadership in your area to align or unify the operational command of your community peace officer program under the leadership of the police service of jurisdiction,” Ellis’s letter reads. “This will be for a temporary time period to ensure law enforcement efforts are coordinated to address fentanyl and social disorder most effectively.”A spokesperson for Ellis’s office confirmed the letter was followed up by a meeting between the minister and municipalities last week.“This meeting builds on the Alberta government’s swift action on the fentanyl crisis to immediately get more boots on the ground to fight the illicit drug trade,” Ellis’s office said in a statement. “We will have more to say on this in the coming days.”
More on Calgary
More videos
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek attended the meeting and noted the city already has a co-ordinated response between police and peace officers.
Get breaking National news
For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.
The mayor said co-ordination includes patrols with police, transit peace officers, security guards and outreach teams in the downtown core and along the transit network.“It’s about making sure the teams are co-ordinated because you want to care for somebody who’s in a position of crisis at a particular moment because they’re using fentanyl, and at the same time you want to crack down on the people who are supplying it,” Gondek said.The mayor noted the chain of command for peace officers remained with the City of Calgary and not the police service.However, that may change following Ellis’s request to municipalities, according to the Calgary Police Service. In a statement to Global News, a spokesperson for Calgary police confirmed peace officers would begin operating under police command as part of a new initiative.“Earlier this week we established the Safer Calgary initiative that will see police and peace officers operating under temporary command of the Calgary Police Service to tackle fentanyl and other illicit drugs along with our continuing work on social disorder and related crime,” a CPS spokesperson said in a statement. “Further details of this will be released in the coming weeks.”
The statement added that co-ordinated response work with peace officers would be expanded to focus more on fentanyl, on top of previous efforts to enforce key issues, including social disorder and encampments.However, some experts have concerns about how the approach would be executed around fentanyl use.“You always have to think about what we call unintended consequences,” said Doug King, a justice studies professor at Mount Royal University. “You’re going to fill up the [Calgary Remand Centre], you’re going to fill up the courts system. Is that what you want to do? And to what purpose, because that’s not going to solve the problem.” The Calgary Police Commission said it was aware of Ellis’s request, but has not yet had a chance to discuss it.The citizen oversight body for the police service added that deployment of co-ordinated resources is decided by a joint management team made up of both police and the City of Calgary.“Our commission fully supports anything that would better address fentanyl use and social disorder,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “But we would need to better understand the potential benefits and added value of bringing peace officers under the Calgary Police Service before supporting a change to the current model.”
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
