She’s speaking out and you know when she speaks out there will be no sugar-coating the facts.
The 11 days of celebration that’s just kicked off in Calgary is not a blank cheque to do what you damn well please.
Calgary top cop Katie McLellan has a message for the idiots, for the bad actors, for the pains-in-the-butt who destroy every party and rain on every parade.
You want to act like a clown, join the circus.
“This is not an opportunity to come down and act like a hooligan,” says the city police chief.
Deputy Chief Cliff O’Brien echoes the sentiment.
“We want people to have fun but there are rules. This is not the Wild, Wild West.
Yes, dressing up as an outlaw out of a Hollywood western movie for a week and a half doesn’t mean you can play the part in real life.
The city cops will be easy to spot in the city’s core and will be a bigger presence than in past years.
These days so many events take place off the Stampede grounds, often next to heavily populated areas.
Noise is one thing.
Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas and Premier Danielle Smith crossed swords in that political duel.
But there is much more than noise happening on the street, off the Stampede grounds where there are tons of events.
The Calgary police admit in past years they haven’t had enough boots on the ground.
They’re bringing in more uniforms and even have a name for the area where they will lay down the law and keep a lid on the lunacy, 3 in the afternoon until 3 in the morning.
L-R, Deputy Chief Coby Duerr, Calgary Emergency Management Agency, Kerrie Blizard, Director, Public Safety & Environment, Calgary Stampede and Inspector JF Dery, Calgary Police Service during a behind-the-scenes look at the Stampede Park Operations Centre.
They call it Zone Ex.
We are happy there is a Zone Ex.
In Zone Ex there is the party and there is behaviour that is no longer part of the party.
It’s where a line has been crossed.
That’s where our cops come in and reinforce the line.
For the record there are also about 400 police officers paid by the organizers of events, including the big tents, to also make sure public safety is maintained.
If problems boil over, the cops are there. You don’t have to pick up the phone.
Chief McLellan says when it comes down to individuals breaking the law, any law, the police will respond.
A bylaw. The Traffic Safety Act. The Criminal Code.
It even comes down to social disorder where folks are frightened, feel intimidated.
“Nobody wants to be concerned about being victimized.”
“Nobody wants to have a bad experience because somebody is being a … what is the word I want to use so I don’t swear.”
Members of the Calgary Police Service, along with private security and a paramedic, monitor crowds at the Coca-Cola Stage on Stampede Grounds on July 10, 2025.
“That’s where it is no longer a party. That’s where it is no longer fun.”
“We will be very strong in relation to enforcement,” says the top cop, adding wrongdoers will be “held responsible.”
We can already hear the bellyaching.
Here they come. They’re the fun police ruining our good times.
McLellan will not be tagged with that handle.
“Nobody wants to be a party pooper or, what do they call it, the fun police.”
“You still have to act like a normal human being.”
And normal human beings, when they are acting as normal human beings, don’t assault people or sexually assault them or get into their vehicle hammered out of their mind pretending they’re perfectly capable of driving.
The police chief mentions “major public intoxication” where it’s having an impact on other people’s enjoyment.
We are not talking about just having one wobbly pop too many.
There will be zero tolerance for those carrying weapons. They will be arrested and they will be charged.
A stabbing occurred near the Euroslide at the Calgary Stampede midway in 2025.
A few years back Calgary city hall asked inner-city residents what they saw with the events happening in their backyard. There was laundry list of concerns, a laundry list of total disrespect, dirty laundry.
McLellan has been with the police for In 35 years. What has changed for her?
There are the drugs. There are the mental health issues. The population has exploded. What was once unacceptable has for some time been tolerated.
Sadly, there are also some Calgarians who see the city’s core as a place where you can do anything you want and any way you want and then high-tail back to the suburbs where the residents on their neighbourhood street would never in a million years accept their behaviour.
McLellan does feel the pendulum is now swinging back from the past.
The police chief puts her final stamp on the interview.
“This is not an opportunity to turn the city of Calgary upside down and get on our radar for all the wrong reasons,” she says, of the next week and a half.
And that includes Zone Ex.
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