Almost 1K arrests made using new Alberta law enforcement data system

Alberta law enforcement can be seen during an arrest in this undated image from video released by police during a press conference on Nov. 8, 2024. (Supplied)

Alberta law enforcement agencies have joined forces to identify and take down the province's top offenders.

Details on a new data system were announced Friday. It's an RCMP-led initiative that allows different police agencies in Alberta to share information on offenders with each other.

"The reality is that criminals don't care about borders," said RCMP Supt. Mike McCauley.

"They operate across jurisdictions, harming communities throughout the province."

The new system has helped officers identify Alberta's top 10,000 offenders – and arrest almost 1,000 of them in a two-week period.

"That's a pretty strong number," McCauley said. "It would probably be around 1,200 in a full month normally. So, it's pretty substantial."

Charges include serious crimes like theft, robbery, drug trafficking, sexual offences and attempted murder.

Almost all the offenders identified are repeat offenders, McCauley said.

"In each individual community, their crimes wouldn't have marked them as priority offenders for that detachment," McCauley said. "However, when we combined our data, we realized that they were in the top 1,000 offenders in the province."

In the Edmonton area alone, McCauley said the data helped execute 250 warrants and arrest 108 people – including four who were in the top 100 offenders.

"Forty-five offenders had two warrants each, with a total of 226 charges between the 90 warrants," he said. "Nine offenders had three warrants each for a total of 76 charges … So we are talking about people that are causing a great deal of harm to our communities."

A similar operation is set to take place soon in Calgary and southern Alberta.

Participating officers can't work on the initiative year-round, so plans are to have one or two large-scale operations each year.