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About the CPS
Our Mission:
"To optimize public safety
in the City of Calgary"
Tour The Calgary Police Service Interpretive Centre
The Calgary Police Service Interpretive Centre educates youth about crime and its consequences, and demonstrates how fulfilling tomorrows for youth are built on sound lifestyle choices today. In addition, the role of police in society is examined.
Issue-based topics are presented in exhibits and displays that are fun and interactive - providing a springboard for parents and educators to begin discussions with their children about sensitive and timely topics such as Internet safety, how to handle bullies, how to say no to peer pressure involving drugs & alcohol, and how to recognize the many faces of exploitation and abuse.
Through school field trips and visits by youth organizations such as scouts, boys and girls clubs, etc., more than 125,000 young people have benefited from Interpretive Centre’s exhibits and programmes. Our forensic science programme, geared to the grade 6 science curriculum and offered 3 days per week, is booked two years in advance. Day visits and evening programmes complement the mandate.
Interpretive Centre is open to the public all day Mondays; Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. A devoted volunteer core of 80, representing a cross section of the community, has been facilitating and serving Calgary visitors for ten years.
If you are able to visit the Calgary Police Service Interpretive Centre, you should allow several hours for your tour. We guarantee there is plenty for you to see and do.
For those of you who can't visit the centre, or those who would like a preview, we've developed this short Web tour to give you a glimpse of some of our exhibits. It would be impossible to show you everything. For that, you'll have to visit us in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
As you move through the pages, you'll find some activities to challenge you and make you think. Now let's start the tour...
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First stop - the early days of policing in Calgary
Have things changed in the past century? Not as much as you might think. Be sure to try our word puzzles before moving on.
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A classroom full of answers
When the museum was being built, we asked kids what they would like to see in our exhibits. They asked for information about recruits, women in the Police Service, and uniforms and badges.
- Tricked
This exhibit was updated in 2004 to examine how prostitutes get involved in this devastating lifestyle in the first place, and why they stay in it. For many people - children and adults alike - this anomaly is exceedingly difficult to grasp and has resulted in many stereotypes about prostitutes being developed in popular medias and in people’s minds over the past decades. In reality, the vast majority of prostitutes (up to 80%) are coerced into the lifestyle as children, likely because they have been abused at a very young age. For the majority of children on today’s streets - either homeless, with crushingly low self-esteem or as victims of incest - it’s more about survival than choice.
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Let's take a ride
Check out a real police cruiser? Learn how police control traffic and why? What's the big deal about drinking and driving? If you read carefully, you'll have no trouble doing the crossword puzzle at the end of the page.
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Dead End Street
This exhibit was updated in 2004 to reflect the newer drugs - both legal and illegal - used on Calgary’s streets, and the fact that children are being introduced to drugs at younger and younger ages. This, along with the fact that the additives in today’s drugs make them more potent and addictive than ever before, means that children can now become addicted after a single use. For example, the THC levels in marijuana was approximately two or three percent in the 1960s. Today, the levels exceed 35 percent, well beyond the addictive range.
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Domestic Abuse & Family Violence
Professionals estimate that one in five school-aged children is witnessing or experiencing domestic abuse. It is no small matter. The Calgary Police Service receives up to 900 calls per month related to domestic conflict. The primary objective of this exhibit is to teach that abuse is a crime, not a private family matter and should be reported. For example, teachers are legally responsible to report suspected abuse - not to their school administration, but directly to Social Services.
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A tribute to our fallen officers
Remember these officers who died in the line of duty.
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Police chiefs
Trace the history of the CPS by reading about the chiefs who have led the Service since its creation in 1885. See how policing has changed and evolved. Along the way, find the answers to our trivia quiz.
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Harm's Way
This new exhibit talks about the roots of youth violence and how unchecked bullying on the playground can lead to gang crime and violence. Exploring how the intrinsic human need for friendship - and sense of belonging - is used by both bullies and gangs as a weapon to gain power and prestige for themselves, this exhibit delves into the heart of relationships and demonstrates to children how the use of relational or physical violence ultimately falls short of its aim. Regardless of whether someone is excluded from group activities or physically harmed, for victimized children - whose friendships are even more vital as they are developing their own identities - the result is the same: excruciating psychological damage that may take years to overcome.
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