The rising number of concerts and their popularity have required Calgary police to throw more resources at those events
Calgary police are preparing for the Calgary Stampede as well over a million people are soon to flock to the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth — an event that’s a “huge lift” for the city’s police service.
Stampede, running from July 5 to 14, is the one event each year that requires CPS to create a new division for policing and will put heightened pressure on the services’ resources to handle the event.
The proliferation of concerts in addition to its trademark rodeo have earned Stampede the title of “Cowchella,” said Calgary police Supt. Joe Brar, which he said has made the event an even greater strain on police resources. CPS classifies Stampede as a major policing event.
Last year’s Stampede welcomed nearly 1.4-million people — just short of the all-time high of 1.41 million set during its 2012 centennial.
“Our response to the Calgary Stampede is something that’s scalable and something that’s very, very visible to Calgarians as the Stampede has grown,” Calgary police Chief Mark Neufeld said at the Calgary police commission meeting Wednesday.
“It’s a big nine days in Calgary.”
The Stampede kicks off next Friday with the annual parade, which CPS expects will bring about 200,000 people to the streets.
The rising number of concerts and their popularity have required Calgary police to throw more resources at those events — especially events where large amounts of alcohol are involved, said Sgt. Jean-Francois Dery.
“Last year we hadn’t necessarily looked at all the events and all we knew was they were coming, but we hadn’t looked specifically at what kind of crowd they were bringing,” Dery said.
“This year we’ve worked … to look at every specific concert, every event, what type of crowd they bring — if it’s a more rowdy crowd or more passive crowd, we’ll adjust staffing levels and security levels in relation to that.”
CPS has also hired a full-time, on-site analyst to provide the service with better communication between units, Dery said, after a review of last year’s Stampede found the flow of information between police and partners was lacking. CPS will also be flying a drone over Stampede, meaning the public won’t be able to use drones in the area surrounding Stampede grounds.
Commissioner Heather Campbell asked Dery and Brar during the meeting about how CPS plans to mitigate the risk of sexual assault at Stampede. Brar said there is “increased risk” of sexual assault at the event due to the number of parties and amount of alcohol consumed at them.
He said CPS will be messaging on how to report offences and there will be heightened police visibility during the 10-day rodeo.
Pro-Palestine protesters take issue with police chief’s characterizing of CPS’ handling of U of C encampment
Later in the meeting, four protesters who said they were at the pro-Palestine encampment at the University of Calgary which was dismantled in early May by CPS presented to the commission. The encampment was set up with the goal of pressuring the university to disclose and divest financial holdings in Israel.
At that meeting, Neufeld said the police force wasn’t aware at the time of batons being used, nor were any injuries reported to CPS. The speakers said they witnessed batons being used to hit protesters and three said they incurred various injuries at the hands of police.
“The incident will not go away and we will continue to seek response to all of this,” Cornett said.