Calgary Police Chief Roger Chaffin talks gangs, fentanyl and why he's against legalizing marijuana

Police Chief Roger Chaffin has barely been in the topjob for two months, but he's already faced plenty ofchallenges.

Chaffin took over as chief in mid-October, at the tail end of a year that has seen a major spike in gang-related shootings, the emergence of fentanyl as a popular and often fatal street drug, and a significant increase in the number of homicides across the city, compared to the previous five-year average.

• Calgary faces gang war defined by impulsive gun violence
• Police to reorganize after guns and gangs spur 'reckless acts of violence'

Chaffinsat down with CBC Calgary News at 6 anchor Rob Brown for a year-end interview, touching on many of these topics, and more.

Here's what the chief had to say.

Q: It's been an extraordinarily violent year gun violence, in particular in our city. What's driving that?

Attribution is difficult on what's driving the violence in the city right now. We're certainly seeing an influx of new drugs in the city, drugs that Calgary hasn't experienced that much of before, things likemethamphetaminesandfentanyland some of the other opiate drugs that are coming in to the point that they're overtaking some of the cocaine trade. There's certainly some attribution that goes along with that.

There's just a culture of violence that has crept in, not just in Calgary, but in other cities. ... When you add those things together with the presence of firearms in the city, you see this big uptick. Now, there's a downturn in the economy, which creates stresses in people.

All of these things together are a recipe for difficult times and Calgary is experiencing that in terms of gun violence and some of the gang violence we're seeing right now.

Q: Are we in the middle of a gang war right now?

I wouldn't call it a gang war but there are certainly gangs at play right now and there's a chaotic nature of these gangs, there's a chaotic structure. "Gangs"is probably the best word to describe it, but they're not what you would normally experience. You would think of gangs as highly structured, wearing similar jackets, having code names or have some sort of rank sergeant-at-arms or presidents or something.

These are just very, very fluid groups. They come together for particular purposes to commit a certain crime or retaliation for an earlier crime, disassemble then reassemble again down the road to do something else. And the fluid nature of it makes it very, very difficult for us to capture them under the moniker of a gang.

Q: So, what has actually shifted in terms of manpower, womanpower on the street?

We've taken our full operational resources and focused them under one umbrella right now. So, rather than being focused on the narrow business unit they work with, they are completely focused on a 24/7 basis on this issue.

Right now we see across even areas that wouldn't be normally involved in violence are all targeted and tasked out of the real-time operations centre. They're provided information, they're provided missions to accomplish and, to date, they've shown great successes.

But, again, it's early. We've only been at this for a month or two now under this new model. But we're seeing early successes and we're going to persist until we're confident we have this problem under control.

Q: Give us some perspective around fentanyl. How does it compare to what you typically see with say cocaine or heroin or methamphetamine?

It's not the highest-volume drug that we have right now but the deaths the immediate deaths that we have associated with fentanyl are incredibly high. It's alarming. It's certainly to the point of being a huge challenge for us, for Alberta Health as well as the justice system. It's causing as all to have to get together to come up with strategies.

Asking the police to fix this problemisn't going to do anything, by ourselves. This is not a problem you arrest your way through. You don't arrest your way out of addictions. You're going to have to find those supplies, find the dealers, and make sure the enforcement is where it needs to be, but having that really robust addiction strategy underneath us is really the only solution that will help Calgary get through this.

Q: Another drug is going to dominate discussion in Canada in the coming months. The new prime minister has made it really clear that he's going to move ahead with legalization of marijuana and regulation of it. What do you thinkof that, as a policy?

I'm just not certain as a Calgarian, someone who's had kids in the community, that we really need a legalized drug. We have lots of challenges with the drugs that are available now. Is it something really necessary?

As an opinion, I don't believe it's necessary to legalize it. But, again, as a police chief, my opinion officially is: We will work with the federal government and work with the laws that are before us.

Q: I'll ask you the same thing I asked the last police chief. All of that said, have you ever smoked pot?

Yes.

Q: You have?

Yes.

Q: It wasn't for you?

No.

Q: I take it you don't do it regularly, still?

I was in Grade 7. So I'd have to pull out my calculator to see how many years ago that was.

Q: What would your parents say about that: Grade 7?

They knew. You know, funny enough, I had a high-school teacher that took me aside as I got into Grade 8 and 9 and

Q: put you on the straight and narrow?

He did. And I'll never forget what he did for me. It was one of those awakening moments that turned me around.