Source: Royal Canadian Mounted Police
As part of a new RCMP-led data sharing initiative, Alberta RCMP, Calgary Police Service, and Alberta Sheriffs worked together in a Joint Forces Operation (JFO), targeting the top priority offenders in the province, through a warrant roundup.
The decisions to implement the initiative came following the recognition by Alberta RCMP that all law enforcement agencies in Alberta were ranking priority offenders in different ways. Understanding that criminals operate in various jurisdictions, it was determined that a province wide-model to identify and prioritize offenders was required.
Through the Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police, all police forces in Alberta have entered into an information sharing agreement that will allow for intelligence and statistical data to be routinely shared. This sharing enables police agencies in Alberta to have a true understanding of the priority offenders that are causing the most harm, not only within individual policing jurisdictions, but across the province. This shared data allows police agencies to properly prioritize and take enforcement action on the most harmful offenders, ensuring the safety of all Albertans.
Alberta RCMP ranks the tens of thousands of unique offenders in Alberta based on the harm they cause in individual communities. To determine the harm caused by these individuals, the Alberta RCMP Strategic Analysis and Research Unit developed a matrix to determine which offenders were causing the most harm in Alberta. This determination is done using the uniform Crime Severity Index scoring that is typically applied to communities by Statistics Canada and applying it to individual’s offenders.
Alberta RCMP, with the assistance of Calgary Police Service Business Analytics, Intelligence & Reporting Section, and policing partners across the province, are now able to collect, translate, and disseminate the offender data of all police agencies in the province to form a clear province-wide priority offender list.
From Nov. 17 to Nov. 30, 2024, the Joint Forces warrant apprehension team hit the streets of Calgary and Southern Alberta, which resulted in the following:
- 88 arrests
- 177 warrants executed; 44 for Provincial offences and 133 For Criminal Code offences, representing a total of 306 charges.
RCMP Province wide executed 1005 warrants associated to 948 different offenders. The individuals arrested during the JFO had warrants from all types of crime, ranging from repeat petty thefts, to arsons, drug trafficking, robbery, and sexual offenses.
To highlight some of the offenders who were arrested:
- A 55-year-old male resident of Calgary, who had four warrants for his arrest with over 42 charges associated mostly related to property crime, was arrested. In the previous 18 months he has been linked to a number of offences such as robbery, drug possession and theft of motor vehicle.
- A 42-year-old male resident of Airdrie, who had seven warrants for his arrest with a total of 27 charges for property crime and fail to comply with court ordered conditions, was arrested. In the previous 18 months he has been associated to files related to sexual interference, sexual assault, and a variety of property crime and drug trafficking offences.
- A 34-year-old male resident of Calgary, who had five warrants for his arrest with a total of 32 charges for failing to comply with court orders, was arrested. He has a history of being involved in trafficking drugs, assault with a weapon, as well as a variety of property crime offences.
- A 28-year-old female resident of Cold Lake had one warrant for her arrest for driving offences. She has had 50 interactions with police in the past 18 months, including for robbery, assault with a weapon, drug trafficking and firearms possession investigations.
“Law Enforcement needs to work together to ensure that jurisdictional borders do not impede our ability to catch the criminals causing the most harm across Alberta,” said Supt. Mike McCauley of the Alberta RCMP. “A small percentage of criminals cause a significant amount of harm across the province, and by using data to drive our work like we do in operations like these, the impact is incredible. “
“Thanks to strong interagency collaboration and information sharing, there are now fewer dangerous offenders on Alberta’s streets and in our communities,” said Supt. Mike Letourneau of the Alberta Sheriffs. “The Alberta Sheriffs are proud to work alongside our law enforcement partners as we pursue our shared objective of keeping Albertans safe.”
“We are committed to working collaboratively with our law enforcement partners across the province to keep Calgarians safe,” says Superintendent Jeff Bell of the CPS Criminal Operations & Intelligence Division. “Apprehending offenders that have committed crimes across our province is a critical step in maintaining public safety and preventing further victimization. We are proud to have been a partner in this important initiative.”