Calgary Police Service: Founded in 1885

Calgary Police Service`s History and Other Fun Facts

The Calgary Police Force (CPS) was founded on February 7th, 1885. The first police chief was named Jack Ingram and he supervised two other constables.

With a salary of $720.00 a year, some of Jack’s responsibilities included arresting unlawful and drunken citizens, enforcing local bylaws, attending fires, local building and food inspections and restricting anyone speeding through town.

Jack was only the beginning of a long CPS history. Below are some more of its most important milestones:

CPS Milestones

1905 – Calgary’s police team included five constables who oversaw 14,000 citizens.

1906 – Detective branch is formed to investigate illegal acts including gambling and prostitution.

1910 – Five years later, city population grew by more than double to 40,000 people while the CPS grew more than six times to 36 active constables.

1913 – Establishment of the Identification Bureau People convicted of an offense were now tracked through photograph and fingerprint.

1914 – CPS Headquarters was constructed at 333 7th Avenue SE in what would be modern day East Village.

1917 – Constable Arthur Duncan was the first ever CPS officer to be murdered. Afterwards, all police were given revolvers to use on duty.

1921 – Our favourite parking tickets were introduced and all on-duty officers had right to issue them.

1930’s – Two way radios installed in police cars drastically improved communications between police officers.

1935 – Economic depression leads to all officers being put on a part-time basis.

1943 – Vera Russel was the first female full-time CPS officer. Quickly following suit was Olive Stanton and Margaret Sadler.

1958 – During this year was the first time that “video” footage was used to record people in a specific area of town, a.k.a. surveillance.

1960 – Calgary gets its first emergency telephone number for ambulance, police and fire (1-1111).

1968 – Officers begin using Breathalyzer technology to test for alcohol consumption levels.

1970 – (911) takes over for (1-1111) as the city’s emergency hotline.

1975 – Computers are first used to document and store information regarding all police force activities, suspects and more.

1995 – The first CPS HAWCS Helicopter begins patrolling the skies, while Christine Silverberg becomes Calgary’s first female police chief ever.

2000 – First CPS officer to wear a turban in full uniform. The turban is navy blue with a CPS logo in the front-middle.

2005 – CPS HAWCS 2 joins the mobile helicopter fleet.

Officer Ratio

Did you know that of all major Canadian cities, Calgary has one of the lowest officer to citizen ratio. According to Statistics Canada (2012), one CPS officer serves 592 citizens - see the full statistics below:

• Montreal – 428

• Halifax – 438

• Winnipeg – 480

• Toronto – 492

• Vancouver – 505

• Edmonton – 513

• Regina – 522

• Saskatoon – 538

• Calgary – 592

• Ottawa – 668

• Quebec – 769

*All information sourced from the Calgary Police Service, City of Calgary

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