Edmonton Police Service


The Edmonton Police Service is the municipal police force for the City of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The current chief of the EPS is Warren Driechel.
The service has three deputy chiefs two sworn members and a civilian member. Chad Tawfik is responsible for the Corporate Services Bureau, Kevin Brezinski runs the Intelligence and Investigations Bureau, and Darren Derko heads the community policing bureau.

Operational structure

The EPS is divided into six bureaus:
The city is divided into divisions for general patrol purposes:
  • Northeast
  • Northwest
  • Downtown
  • West
  • Southwest
  • Southeast
Each division is separated into four smaller districts to allow for better deployment of resources. The majority of police officers of the Edmonton Police Service serve within the community policing bureau as patrol constables, sergeants, detectives, or staff sergeants.
Officers of the Edmonton Police Service have the highest first year constable salaries in Canada at a minimum of $71,195 per annum, EPS officers who work a shift where half or more of that shift falls between the hours of 4:00 p.m. and midnight receive an extra $1.10 an hour. EPS officers who work a shift where half or more of that shift falls between the hours of midnight and 8:00 a.m. receive an extra $1.20 an hour, increasing the minimum hourly rate for first year constables to $30.47 or about $63,621.00 per annum. Special event policing pays $93.89 an hour. Sergeants and detectives are paid a minimum $120,742.00 per annum, or about $57.82 an hour, and staff sergeants are paid a minimum $132,816.00 per annum, or about $63.60 an hour. Each uniformed officer receives an annual clothing allowance of $597, and each plain-clothed officer receives $1,285.
In July 2023, Edmonton Police Services secured a 7% retroactive pay increase for officers, at an estimated additional cost of $20m to the City of Edmonton for the 2024 budget. A 5th year constable will now make $54.53 an hour, the highest rate in Alberta behind Lethbridge Police Services, where the same position would make $54.60 as of 2023.

Criminal investigations

Within the specialized community support bureau – criminal investigations division, the major crimes branch is divided into economic crimes, homicide and robbery. These areas are primarily made up of detectives and staff sergeants. The serious crimes area deals with sexual assault, child protection, and vice. These areas are also made up of detectives and staff sergeants. The Edmonton Police Service is also a member of the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams.

History

Policing in Edmonton dates back to 1892, well before the founding of the province. In this year, a town police force took over duties formerly served by the North-West Mounted Police they were unwilling to take responsibility for enforcing law and order in the city following the 1892 Rat Creek Rebellion.
On July 27, 1892, P.D. Campbell was the first police officer hired by the town of Edmonton. Aside from dealing with law enforcement issues, Campbell was also Edmonton's health and licence inspector.
The Mounties resumed the maintenance of law and order in the City and the Edmonton Police Department was founded to stay in 1894.
In 1911, Alex Decoteau was hired by the Edmonton Police Department. He was the first Indigenous person to be hired by a police department in Canada.
On October 1, 1912, Annie May Jackson was hired as a police officer. She was the first woman constable in Canada, serving from 1912 to 1918.
Edmonton police officers used an airplane to pursue a criminal in 1919. This was the first time a Canadian police service used this technology in a pursuit. Former WWI ace Wop May flew an airplane to assist the successful pursuit and capture of John Larsen, murderer of Edmonton constable William Nixon.

Policing changes

During the sixth decade of policing, from 1942 to 1952, the department continued to grow.
In 1943, the Neighbourhood Police Force was seen policing Edmonton's streets. An Edmonton police officer was paired up with an American military police officer to patrol because there were many U.S. servicemen in Edmonton at the time. After 18 months, it was discontinued when there was no longer a need for it. The end of the main work on the Alaska Highway, based in Edmonton, and the easing of the Japanese invasion threat meant fewer U.S. personnel in Edmonton by 1944.

Recruit training

In 1947, formal recruit training was introduced. Prior to the formal training, officers were sent to the streets with minimal instruction. After six months of training in 1949, 15 officers graduated.
In 1951, the department recruited in Scotland and Ireland after struggling to meet recruit demands.
In 1955, basic training class number one graduated, with 28 members completing the course.
Edmonton Police's pipe band, which had formed in 1914, halted because of the war. It re-emerged in 1959 and became a visible public relations tool still performing today.

Edmonton's growth and militarized policing practices

In the 1960s, the towns of Beverly and Edmonton joined and the Jasper Place Police Department joined forces with the Edmonton Police Department, adding the population of Jasper Place to Edmonton.
Sarge, a dog, officially joined the department in 1963. The dog squad grew, and a kennel and training ground were opened by the municipal airport in 1974. The location is the same, and is named after Sarge's owner, Val Vallevand.
In the 1980s, the Edmonton Police Service adopted new, American-style policing practices - most notably the use of a militarized riot squad to suppress the 1986 Gainers Meatpackers Strike. In 1986 after years of stagnant and declining wages and eroded provincial labour conditions and laws, local millionaire and owner of the Edmonton Oilers and the Gainers meatpacking plant Peter Pocklington provoked a massive strike after threatening to cut wages from $13.00 an hour to $7.00 an hour, among other attacks on benefits and conditions. 1080 meatpackers picketed the plant with widespread support from community members and other unions. On the second day of the strike, Gainers secured an injunction and Edmonton Police helped break the strike by allowing buses carrying scabs through and arresting workers at will - with over 300 arrested on June 3 alone. In the first month of the strike, Edmonton Police deployed 1/3 of their force to the Gainers picket line, including their riot squad for the first time. They also spent their entire annual overtime budget of $500,000 in these first few days alone. As described by Dave Werlin, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour at the time, "If the police had never shown their faces at the picket lines, no one would have tried to run buses through, there would have been no violence or arrest".
In 2021 after a two-year delay related to roof collapse and other structural and mechanical failures, a new Northwest Edmonton Police Service Campus was opened at 18440-127 Street NW. The 183,000 compound operates as a training facility and divisional station, but also has 70 detainee cells. The city of Edmonton spent an estimated $119.7 million on the project, including the over budgeted $12 million cost of replacing the roof.

2023–2024 encampment sweeps

On December 15, 2023, the EPS notified social service and homeless support organizations in the Edmonton downtown core of their plan to remove 134 tents and structures at what they deemed to be 'eight high-risk encampments' over 5 days, right before Christmas. The planned operation would be one of the largest and fastest encampment sweeps in Edmonton's history, and would be carried out by police in conjunction with city employees. An emergency court filing by lawyers working for the Coalition for Justice and Human Rights secured an interim injunction against the sweeps. The temporary injunction said that encampment sweeps could still occur but with certain conditions most notably, that police and city workers had to first guarantee that enough shelter spaces are open before carrying out sweeps.
Following a few days of delay, the encampment sweeps proceeded. As of January 12, all eight high-risk encampments had been evicted, removing roughly 120 tents and other living structures. At the last sweep on January 10 at Rowland Road encampment, as temperatures outside dipped to −30 °C, three people were arrested, including journalist Brandi Morin, camp elder Roy Cardinal, and Dene and Blackfoot drummer, observer, and activist Teyen Bohnsack. Bohnsack was charged with assaulting a peace officer and resisting arrest, though video and eyewitness sources claimed that the officer instigated by pushing Bohnsack's wife Kiya Tailleur to the ground, unprovoked.
One of the peace officers claiming obstruction of justice was Amber Maze, a former candidate for the Wildrose Party. The officer who claimed to be assaulted by Bohnsack, Constable Michael Zacharuk, had a history of unlawful violence and was charged in 2022 after an ASIRT investigation with assault causing bodily harm for assaulting a man in his custody.
The Coalition for Justice and Human Rights initiated a lawsuit against the City of Edmonton that sought to ban encampment sweeps and evictions while the city continued to offer no other housing alternatives. On January 16, Judge Jonathan Martin quashed the Coalition's lawsuit, siding with the City's legal team, and ruled that "The Coalition does not in fact bear any of the hallmarks of a party with a real stake or genuine interest in the outcome." The City also sought $25,000 in legal costs from the Coalition, claiming that "to evade costs would encourage parties that do not have a real stake or genuine issue in the outcome to bring litigation knowing that there is no risk of a cost award against them".
Since the lawsuit was dismissed, over 49 homeless encampments were dismantled, displacing at least 211 structures and over 175 people.