A new Alberta sheriff's team created to help track down criminals wanted by authorities is now up and running across the province. The Fugitive Apprehension Sheriff's Support Team, known as FAST, started operations in February of this year in Edmonton and is already making a difference. In just seven months, the team has executed more than 1,300 warrants.
00:00:21.480And, of course, I want to thank the sheriffs and our valued policing partners for the vital work that they do to serve and protect Albertans every day.
00:00:30.000Today, I'm pleased to announce that a new Alberta sheriff's team created to help track down criminals wanted by authorities is now up and running across the province.
00:00:40.680The Fugitive Apprehension Sheriff's Support Team, known as FAST, started operations in February of this year in Edmonton and is already making a difference.
00:00:49.460In just seven months, the team has executed more than 1,300 warrants.
00:00:54.400Now, that may seem like a large number, but there are more than 82,000 warrants that are active in the province of Alberta at this time.
00:01:05.700So, what does that mean in regards to 1,300 warrants?
00:01:08.680Well, that means that more than 300 offenders have been apprehended, taken into custody, and are now off the streets.
00:01:15.260It's also worth noting that of the nearly 300 arrests that have been made, more than 260 have been Tier 1 fugitives.
00:01:22.720So those are offenders who are the most dangerous, the most prolific, and, of course, high-risk offenders in the province.
00:01:30.960Quite frankly, taking these individuals off the streets and putting them back into the courts demonstrates our government's commitment to making Alberta safer.
00:01:38.320In fact, to show you just how quickly this team has had an impact, in their first two days on the job,
00:01:44.400FAST members in Edmonton helped police locate and arrest a prolific child sex offender who breached
00:01:50.000parole conditions, as well as a man who was wanted for first-degree murder in connection
00:01:54.800with a gang-related homicide in August of 2023. Rest assured, the number of arrests have risen
00:02:01.520steadily since those early days, and we expect it will continue to do so in the months and years to
00:02:06.880come. The provincial government is providing $2.6 million in operating funding for the FAST teams,
00:02:14.080which will have members in Edmonton and Calgary, seven officers in each city who will work with
00:02:19.280police services throughout Alberta to ensure that those accused and convicted of crimes in our
00:02:24.640province are brought to justice. For example, this could be people accused of serious crimes
00:02:29.600who have failed to appear in court or have breached their bail conditions, or it could be
00:02:34.240convicted criminals who have breached the conditions of their parole or statutory release
00:02:38.800in the community i've said it before and i will say it again the federal government must implement
00:02:44.320a serious bail reform to put a stop to bill c75 this bill has been a disaster for our communities
00:02:53.040and that is why our government will continue to advocate the bill c75 be repealed bill c75
00:02:59.040has perpetuated a cycle of crime and victimizes law-abiding citizens over and over again but i
00:03:04.800have also been clear that Alberta's government will do whatever it takes in its area of authority
00:03:10.400to ensure that our communities are safe and to keep Albertans safe. FAST is another way that we
00:03:17.120are delivering on that commitment. Having additional resources to apprehend fugitives
00:03:22.800with outstanding warrants significantly reduces the likelihood of them re-offending and continuing
00:03:27.760to victimize Albertans. Justice demands that people accused of a crime must have their day
00:03:32.880in court and alberta's government will do whatever it takes to keep people safe another way fast
00:03:37.840benefits the safety of our communities is by freeing up resources for police services such
00:03:42.640as those in calgary and edmonton so that they can stay focused on other local priorities and we know
00:03:48.560that police services find and arrest dangerous fugitives every day however there are a vast
00:03:54.480number of wanted fugitives out there at any given time as i mentioned over 82 000 warrants are
00:04:01.040currently in the province of alberta and it is a significant job and now the police have support
00:04:07.120in calgary from the alberta sheriffs this is part of our wider strategy supports alberta's police
00:04:13.120services in new ways and put more boots on the ground in places where they are needed this is
00:04:18.160being demonstrated through our government's initiatives such as the rural alberta provincial
00:04:22.720integrated defense or what is known as the rapid program our safer communities teams and our safer
00:04:28.880communities and neighborhoods teams which is known as the scan program and providing funding for the
00:04:33.360hundred officers on the streets in both calgary and edmonton furthermore our sheriffs are also
00:04:39.920helping to keep our highways safe and since being given the authority to investigate impaired driving
00:04:44.880as part of the rapid response in 2021 the sheriff highway patrol has removed more than 4700 impaired
00:04:51.120drivers from alberta's roads police officers and sheriffs share a common commitment which is
00:04:57.040protecting albertans and keeping our communities safe working together they can be even stronger
00:05:01.920and even more effective fast is yet another positive step in that direction and alberta's
00:05:06.800government will continue to look for new and innovative innovative ways to uh for the province
00:05:13.120uh law enforcement agencies to work together towards safer communities for all albertans
00:05:17.920so to all members of the alberta sheriffs alberta's police services uh let me just say that
00:05:23.360your willingness to try new approaches to solving problems uh in the spirit of cooperation you bring
00:05:28.800these joint efforts uh that are both noticed and both appreciated but above all please accept my
00:05:37.040heartfelt gratitude on behalf of albertans for the work that you do every day to keep us all safe
00:05:42.080and i thank you and i'd like to now invite uh superintendent mike latourneau to the
00:05:45.680podium to say a few remarks from the alberta sheriffs thank you
00:05:54.000thank you minister ellis it's great to be here for such a momentous occasion
00:05:59.360and to be joined by our partners in law enforcement
00:06:02.320as minister ellis mentioned fast became operational in february of this year
00:06:07.600its impact has been both quick and immense
00:06:11.040through close collaboration with police services we've already managed to remove
00:06:15.200hundreds of dangerous offenders from alberta streets and communities
00:06:20.080last count fast had executed 1386 warrants
00:06:25.040and apprehended 303 fugitives we do expect those numbers to keep
00:06:29.920rising we look forward to continuing to work
00:06:32.240with our police partners to make that happen
00:06:35.520in terms of composition fast or the fugitive apprehension sheriff's support
00:06:39.920team is made up of 14 members those individuals
00:06:43.680are split evenly between Edmonton and Calgary and the southern regions and northern regions of our
00:06:49.520province all of them operate in plainclothes capacity they've received intensive specialized
00:06:55.920training as a part of the fast onboarding in short they're extremely well equipped with the
00:07:01.600knowledge skills and professionalism that this role demands police services find and apprehend
00:07:08.080fugitives every single day across the province and they do a commendable job of it the intent
00:07:12.960the fast is not to replace or take over that function but rather augment it and support it
00:07:19.600more resources means faster results and safer operations fast presence also frees up time
00:07:28.400for resources so that police can now allocate it to other areas of frontline operations
00:07:33.840when we speak of fugitives we're referring to individuals that are wanted on outstanding
00:07:38.400warrants but who for whatever reason have evaded arrest or escaped custody not only are these
00:07:45.600individuals dangerous they're considered a risk to the public they've avoided accountability for
00:07:50.880their criminal actions it's imperative they face justice and are arrested before they can re-offend
00:07:56.880and harm albertans there have been literally hundreds of success stories so far in over 31
00:08:03.360towns and cities throughout Alberta it's well worth noting that a vast majority of the arrests
00:08:08.880over 260 have been made on tier one offenders tier one status is reserved for the most dangerous
00:08:16.720and prolific offenders in the province it includes individuals who are generally considered the
00:08:22.400greatest threat to Alberta lives livelihoods and property these offenders are treated as
00:08:28.080the highest priority among fugitives their apprehension is considered to be the most
00:08:33.280impactful in terms of protecting public safety to put that in context it includes everything
00:08:40.400from child predators wanted for sexual interference to violent offenders wanted for first-degree
00:08:46.080murder fast has executed warrants on and apprehended fugitives wanted for some of the most heinous
00:08:53.280crimes one can commit this is including robberies kidnappings and sexual assaults
00:08:59.920apprehending these individuals and removing them from society has an immediate and profound effect
00:09:07.280on community safety i'm extraordinarily proud of the work the team's carried out thus far
00:09:14.080of course many of our successes have been shared with various police services
00:09:19.280that have directly contributed to fast implementation and operations we're
00:09:24.720tremendously grateful to our policing partners for their cooperation their collaboration and
00:09:30.320their ongoing contributions thank you working alongside community members police and other
00:09:38.160stakeholders will contribute to our ongoing success i thank you and i invite chief newfeld
00:09:51.440well good afternoon everybody thanks for coming minister thanks for the
00:09:53.920invitation to participate today uh really i don't have a ton to say
00:09:57.760uh i'm happy to uh entertain any questions later but
00:10:01.040on behalf of calgary police service i just want to uh commend the sheriffs and
00:10:04.480commend the province uh this is a positive initiative to be
00:10:07.120sure um this is an initiative which as has been
00:10:10.160said will augment safety for albertans and calgarians for
00:10:13.200sure and it will complement the good work that's currently being done by certainly in the city of
00:10:17.680calgary by the fugitive apprehension detail which is part of cps and our home team which stands for
00:10:23.920habitual offender management and enforcement team so whether it be searching for individuals who
00:10:29.680are wanted on outstanding warrants which has been mentioned people who have been uh on parole or
00:10:35.120probation and violated the terms of those uh orders or even high profile cases where individuals have
00:10:41.040been identified for crimes but yet to have been arrested there are more than enough people to be
00:10:47.600arrested right now in our communities which with everything that's going on the one thing we know
00:10:52.640is that offenders are mobile we've seen that particularly in the most prolific offenders in
00:10:58.800the province we see that they move between communities very fluidly so it's important
00:11:03.440that law enforcement be coordinated and aligned in the same way and we can move similarly you
00:11:09.200know a good recent example and superintendent janet can probably speak to it better than i but
00:11:13.440with the case uh with the murder in uh southern alberta uh and elijah strawberry being out on the
00:11:19.600run for so long so that started in calgary the murder took place in rcmp territory and then it
00:11:25.680had tentacles into many communities along the way so clearly law enforcement has to be equally as
00:11:30.560nimble and equally as agile in terms of being able to move and cooperate in ways that we need to to
00:11:35.440bring those offenders into custody so this will be a good example of that as i said before with
00:11:41.680the numbers of people that need to be arrested at this particular time there's more than certainly
00:11:45.520cps or any of the individual agencies would look after on their own i certainly anticipate the
00:11:52.320sheriff's team can assist in cases where we believe that offenders in calgary that our teams were
00:11:57.440looking for have left into a rural area and by uh by comparison when offenders from rural areas or
00:12:04.800our other communities have come into Calgary, which they also do, our efforts will definitely
00:12:08.760be complementary and aligned with one another. So I'm looking forward to that. I think as has
00:12:13.320been mentioned, things can happen faster, things can happen quicker, and frankly, just put more
00:12:17.660pressure on, we prioritize resources around the highest harm and highest risk offenders, for sure.
00:12:24.320You've heard about tier one offenders and individuals with the data we can figure out in the
00:12:28.220province who the highest harm people are and monitor them around the province to the benefit
00:12:33.100of albertans this way we can put more pressure on faster and in a more coordinated and aligned way
00:12:38.300and this will certainly help uh to to move along that work
00:12:47.500i think i'll leave it there and turn it over to my colleague from the rcmp uh superintendent rick
00:12:51.820jenny thank you thank you all for being here um as my colleague said i'm with the
00:13:02.780i'm responsible as the assistant district officer for southern alberta district and what i would
00:13:07.740reiterate with the minister and my colleagues have said that policing is an industry where there's a
00:13:13.500lot of job security there's more work always more work available than uh than can be uh managed by
00:13:19.900any one unit and so the opportunity to see increased funding from the province to support
00:13:24.540uh crime crime reduction through arresting prolific and dangerous offenders is something
00:13:29.900that will be a benefit to all albertans we have uh units as well southern alberta and all the
00:13:36.220districts have crime reduction units that can work take on this type of work but the reality is by
00:13:41.500and they've already been working closely with the fast teams it just allows us and and them to both
00:13:47.100coordinate and prioritize and and be able to enter um to locate and incapacitate more offenders that
00:13:55.020are affecting our communities we are you know we as the rcmp are proud of our partnerships with all
00:14:01.020of the agencies across the country and having additional uh roles that they can take on safely
00:14:06.860with the training that they have is something that we look forward to and it's quite frankly
00:14:11.820not a new partnership we've had partnerships with the sheriffs and the other police agencies uh
00:14:16.300throughout our history and we value that partnership and the partnership we have with
00:14:20.460government ultimately we know that uh increased attention to the the impacts of prolific offenders
00:14:27.580and dangerous offenders will uh bring additional community safety to our to our citizens and so
00:14:34.460we're looking forward to continuing to innovate and find ways of working together to address
00:14:40.860community concerns and enhance public safety thank you very much
00:14:43.660thank you this brings us to the question and answer portion of our announcement we do have
00:14:51.740a number of journalists here on the floor if you do have a question i'd ask you to just
00:14:56.300step to the mic and please state your your name and your outlet uh aaron june's live
00:15:02.300wire calvary a question for the chief chief newfield please
00:15:08.140chief newfield i'm curious what uh the fast team does in terms of maybe resource deployment at cps
00:15:13.020and what this basically means for the way the operational works the deployment wise and duty
00:15:18.380shifts and things like that yeah i think that was the additional layer of complexity for us because
00:15:22.380we were one of the agencies that actually had an existing unit doing this type of work but the
00:15:26.300reality of it is i think this adds capacity as has been mentioned so i mean there's that additional
00:15:31.340piece of making sure that we're de-conflicting making sure that we're um we're working on
00:15:35.740different people uh and making sure that the work is complementary but as i say i also think it's
00:15:40.700good for calgarians as we see um certain offenders who've been targeted leave the calgary community
00:15:46.060we can rely on our partners to be able whether it be fast or whether it be rcmp in their
00:15:49.900jurisdictions to be able to pursue into those locations which allows us to leave our resources
00:15:55.580in calgary to deal with issues and offenders that are in calgary and harming calgarians
00:16:00.380so i think that's good i think you know this really is about collaboration and um and just
00:16:05.580adding capacity to a system that that very much needs it chief an off-topic question uh we have
00:16:12.060a death in custody this morning uh can you speak at all to that please um just at a high level
00:16:17.020obviously it's under investigation by a cert and investigation is obviously in the early stages but
00:16:21.900i think the situation just highlights you know how something that comes in a call that comes in
00:16:27.100to police and police are dispatched can appear to be innocuous and then once police get on scene it
00:16:31.900can be anything but very quickly so certainly my thoughts are with the officers that are involved
00:16:36.700for sure it was a very harrowing experience as well as the family of the individual who passed
00:16:40.940away in the uh in the uh situation but in terms of what happened there in the details those are
00:16:46.380be for acert right now uh and i wouldn't want to say anything that would that would uh hamper
00:16:50.940their efforts in in that regard so thank you and chief if i may also ask another question on that
00:16:58.540incident i know you are very limited in terms of speaking on that incident but can you tell us a
00:17:03.180little bit in terms of uh the thinking or the process that goes behind an officer uh when they
00:17:07.900have to use a weapon and if they have to use a different weapon as well too yeah i think as you
00:17:13.740know officers are trained to de-escalate situations in the best way that they can some situations
00:17:19.100though are are escalated by design or they start out that way so very difficult to sometimes
00:17:24.540de-escalate when people are struggling um whether it be with mental health or addictions or a
00:17:29.020combination thereof um and again those will all be things will be worked out through the
00:17:32.700investigation but i think probably the surprising thing sometimes is again for there's certain
00:17:37.980calls that come in when officers respond they know inherently those are high-risk calls but
00:17:42.140and sometimes it isn't um and again without speaking so much about this case um we had an
00:17:47.500awards ceremony recently and there was an officer who responded to a noisy like a complaint of a
00:17:51.740noisy stereo in a car and so that to an officer is a very innocuous thing uh he pulled up in the
00:17:57.580parking lot and the individual got up and leveled a shotgun at him and shot him at him as soon as he
00:18:01.820got out of his car so that's what i mean like when you try to reflect on things like that that you
00:18:06.220think are situations that are you know are going to be innocuous or something that might not carry
00:18:10.460a lot of um of obvious danger but i guess it just underscores that there's no such thing as a as
00:18:17.420um a low risk call there's just unknown risk calls and if i may also ask a question to the
00:18:23.660superintendent as well too um when it comes to the fast program i know yes sorry yes
00:18:32.940uh i i know the program just started i believe in back in february just uh
00:18:37.020in terms of the responsiveness in terms of getting fugitives can you give us uh i guess
00:18:43.020a time range i know it's still very very very recent but a range in terms of how soon how
00:18:48.060quickly some fugitives have been able to be apprehended yeah some fugitives um because
00:18:54.140they haven't moved around a lot and they're at locations that we're able to identify that happens
00:18:59.020very very quickly of course there's others where we have to use pretty intensive investigative
00:19:04.940tactics that to locate them and arrest so those take a little bit longer but um it's the whole
00:19:11.580gamut right from uh immediate to a lengthy period of time really so
00:19:19.580we do have some more questions uh from the floor uh aaron with live wire again question
00:19:23.980for minister else please sure minister i'm assuming that the lead up to putting this
00:19:30.380funding forward came as a result of many conversations with law enforcement agencies
00:19:34.060across the province maybe give us a detail what some of those conversations looked like and
00:19:37.980how that feedback went into this program sure well as i've said many times ago uh many times
00:19:43.500before we we try to do our best to augment and support all police services in alberta um you
00:19:49.020know we we did uh we did hear uh feedback um not just from community members but uh you know
00:19:56.700certainly uh obviously from law enforcement that uh you know there are there are shortages out there
00:20:02.540And as you've heard me say time and time again, when it comes to a 911 call, I expect somebody to go to that call. I don't care what the uniform is. And so if we can free up some of those frontline officers from taking time out of their day to go on the hunt for active warrants, as an example, and the folks in the sheriffs can maybe do that duty as they have been doing in rural Alberta, then that just frees up more frontline officers.
00:20:32.540officers in rural alberta to take active calls to service so you know a lot of it was born from just
00:20:38.140talking to community members and and a lot of folks don't realize this but historically uh i
00:20:43.340think it was well over 15 years ago i think it was a young constable at that particular time
00:20:46.940maybe 20 years ago that there there was a there was a fugitive apprehension team about 20 years ago
00:20:51.580and and uh through choices that were made by successive governments down the road they they
00:20:56.540didn't exist but you know from my perspective as a kind of a frontline officer myself back in the
00:21:01.820day i thought that there was real value to that in helping calgary edmonton lethbridge the rcmp
00:21:08.220in rural alberta and so you know i think i think the stats that i've seen have kind of proven that
00:21:13.820out you know seeing that there's been over 1300 warrants that have been uh you know taken out of
00:21:18.940the system that over 300 offenders have been arrested so i you know so far i'm very pleased
00:21:24.060with the the numbers that we're getting regarding outcomes did you have a follow-up question yeah
00:21:30.300Yeah. Minister, Justice Mark Tyndale, pretty strong words against the government's funding of the courts as it is right now,
00:21:38.800obviously building up Bill 75, offenders, not enough justice of the peace, not enough prosecutors, crown prosecutors.
00:21:48.140What does the conversation look like on a cabinet level to put more funding onto the other side once these offenders are caught and they're put into the justice system?
00:21:56.520Well, I mean, there's two components of that.
00:21:59.780uh first of all i have a couple comments that that certainly that's been a question better
00:22:03.780better suited for minister amory however i i can tell you um from a uh federal judges uh perspective
00:22:12.580i know minister amory has been advocating for the federal government to appoint more judges
00:22:16.980here in alberta and and certainly my conversations with minister amory um is that you know he's been
00:22:23.380And, you know, he's talked to the federal justice minister, he's encouraged him to appoint more justices in the province of Alberta.
00:22:31.860I know that, and that judge you referenced is not incorrect.
00:22:37.100I mean, when we have more judges, there's more court cases that can be heard and can be dealt with, and it doesn't provide a clogging within the system.
00:22:45.940I can tell you from a provincial government perspective, because there's provincial court judges.
00:22:50.980I know Minister Amory is going through the process, and at least I feel from a cabinet perspective on a fairly regular basis,
00:22:57.940we are certainly doing our part to appoint judges in the province of Alberta.
00:23:03.560Do we have any more questions here from the floor?
00:23:06.920We don't. I'll get us to head over to the phone lines. I do believe we have some questions on the phone.
00:23:15.940Hi. Your next question is from Jonathan Bradley.
00:23:20.980of western standard your line is already up okay hello minister elvis thank you for taking my
00:23:29.540question so you spoke about the fugitive apprehension sheriff support team being
00:23:34.900expanded across alberta now what was the process like to obtain this expansion
00:23:42.420well this started about uh i think it was about a year ago about a year ago
00:23:47.940And as I've already previously mentioned, some of the successes that they've had, you know, really the last cog in this was the Calgary Police Service.
00:23:59.420And that I totally respect what the chief was saying in regards to this.
00:24:04.160They already had their own fugitive apprehension team.
00:24:06.760They had to make sure that there was no de-confliction.
00:24:12.720I mean, we are trying to augment and support all police services in Alberta.
00:24:16.660This is a net benefit for not only all of Alberta but it's a net benefit for the people of Calgary and this is why we're doing this announcement here today.
00:24:23.840I mean, we're doing whatever we can as law enforcement, as the government to keep Alberta safe and that's what we're trying to do, Jonathan.
00:25:04.920No, I wanted to know, what would you like to see police officers focus more on now that they don't have to worry about fugitive apprehension as much?
00:25:25.240Oh, well, yeah. I mean, I think I mentioned that. I mean, what we're trying to do here, like, I'm not, you know, I listen. I listen to what people in the community say. I listen to what the police say. You know, I listen to what frontline workers say. And, you know, there's a lot of frontline workers. It doesn't matter if we're talking about Calgary, Edmonton, RCMP, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, or wherever there are frontline police officers.
00:25:48.120many of them are really just trying to get to calls to service
00:25:52.960and doing what they can as frontline officers.
00:25:56.320And so if we can alleviate some pressure off of them
00:25:58.660by having a fugitive apprehension team
00:26:01.100or we have the scan teams, as an example,