Calgary

Calgary's East Village will see more police presence with new office

As more people move into newly-completed condo towers in the East Village, the police want to raise their visibility in the area.

With more and more people moving into new condos, the force wants to increase its visibility

Calgary police are making their presence known in Calgary's East Village with a new office space for officers to hang their hats. (Scott Dippel/CBC)

As more people move into newly-completed condo towers in the East Village, the police want to raise their visibility in the area.

To that end, the force now has a small office donated by the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation so that it can easily patrol the burgeoning riverside community. 

"We want to enhance our visibility in the East Village area, so what it does is it allows our police officers to stay out there, stay on patrol a little bit longer," said Inspector Cliff O'Brien who's in charge of the district encompassing the area.

This unassuming door is the new Calgary police office in the East Village, meant as a space for officers, not a station for public access. (Scott Dippel/CBC)

"We're going to see, I would assume that the public is going to see police vehicles outside of that particular station while officers are in there catching up on paperwork and things like that."

Lisa Mundell, who works in the East Village, likes the idea police officers will be around more. 

"There's been lots of police presence on bicycles around the Riverwalk, not so much up near the new music centre, N3 or the Hilton because there hasn't really been a lot of people living up in this neighbourhood, on this side of East Village," she said. 

The new office isn't open to the public so if people want to report something, they're still asked to call the police directly.