It’s the reality of a big — and growing — city, Calgary’s police chief says. Organized crime will grow with it. Thursday, Katie McLellan told CTV News local law enforcement is working on the issue. But with numbers around guns and drugs seeing an uptick, the city’s top cop acknowledged it is “very, very concerning.” Her comments came while discussing the dangers her officers face. This month, an officer was shot in the line of duty. In that scenario, on Aug. 10, she said, “A known criminal went and shot at our officers, shot at other individuals, shot at our HAWCS helicopter.” While far from all calls end that way, more involve weapons and drugs than was the case a year ago. “Unfortunately, we’re just seeing more and more of this,” she said. “Our officers, on a daily basis, are seeing lots of weapons, lots of drugs.” Calgary saw 32 shootings in all of 2025. In 2026, the number’s already at 51, and it’s only August. Between January and July 2025, 214 guns were seized, while between January and July 2026, the number was 442. 2026 has seen 42,715 grams of cocaine seized. In 2025, it was 17,015 grams. 2026 has seen 11,666 grams of fentanyl seized. In 2025: 12,763 grams. And 2026 has seen 31,131 grams of meth seized. In 2025: 27,787 grams. McLellan told CTV News many of this year’s 51 shootings thus far “involved some of the South Asian extortions.” In June, police said Calgary has seen 49 extortion-related incidents since April 2025. The majority of those incidents targeted members of the South Asian community. Police said at that time 19 shootings were tied to the incidents. At the time, police released the photos and names of more than a dozen suspects they’d arrested — a means of generating more tips. Thursday, McLellan said the battle against organized crime continues. She said she hopes to see the numbers brought down. “We’ll continue to work with our partners. We’ll continue to work our operations,” she said. “We’ll continue to do what we can. “There’s lots of work that goes on behind the scenes that people don’t see on a daily basis.”
