More young people are committing crimes in Calgary. Why?

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Airsoft guns, real guns, fake guns, knives, weapons seized in Calgary, not from gangs, from students at school. The gun on the right is a 3D printed replica of a Glock. The real gun is on the left to show the similarity. Police seized it from an elementary student. Police say this is a robbery kit. It included an airsoft gun and a mask. It was confiscated from a teenager who police say was planning to settle a dispute with another student. They've also seized pepper and bear spray. These are all from one student. Police believe the teenager was selling them to other students.

[00:00:39]>> There's a lot more access to weapons than there ever has been before, unfortunately. Um, and I think that we just don't have enough of a handle on where they're getting it, why they're doing it.

[00:00:50]>> That access to weapons is feeding into other trends. Calgary police say youth are committing more violent crimes.

[00:00:56]>> They're using weapons for that im intimidation or they're using it to harm. Uh we are seeing a lot of conflict that are happening at schools whether it's against, you know, two different schools or uh youth within the same school.

[00:01:11]>> Led by assaults, violent youth crimes increased 16% last year to 921 incidents. Police say in 2025, repeat offenders accounted for roughly half of all youth crimes. Roughly half of the victims were young, too. Police say a small group of offenders is behind the escalating violence. They also point to random assaults and school related group conflicts.

[00:01:33]>> It was very chaotic.

[00:01:34]>> Constable Leah Birdie has seen those conflicts as she's a school resource officer. Birdie provides mentorship, education, crime prevention, and enforcement.

[00:01:43]>> There was a fight going on in the school that kind of spilled outside of the school. Then there was a vehicle that went by that popped off some very loud noises which sounded like gunshots and gunfire which caused mass panic. Um that caused the school to go in lockdown and external lockdown.

[00:01:56]>> It's no longer a problem for only high schools. Police say the students committing violent crimes are trending younger.

[00:02:02]>> Usually we'll see youth about ages 16 to 17 that are committing these crimes. But we are seeing them as young as 12 to 13.

[00:02:10]>> We're seeing a lot of growth in youth courts. This Calgary defense lawyer is also seeing more serious offenses involving violence cases that can't be diverted away from the courts and resolved through different approaches, including restorative justice. The files she's seeing include young people with mental health and addiction problems.

[00:02:28]>> I've never seen the level of addiction that we're encountering right now, and it's really crushing cuz these are just children. And when you delve into this and you understand what their background is and how they came to be here and how they're self-medicating, we we're not I'm not surprised.

[00:02:46]>> Shapiraka is working with Calgary police and other agencies on a new program. Its aim is to better support young offenders by understanding their backgrounds and what led to the offense. She says during the course of that work, they've uncovered missed opportunities for early intervention. Any police interaction with a child at any age, whether they were in the home when the police were called on something else, that's an opportunity to check in with that child.

[00:03:12]There's an incident at school, that's an opportunity to check in with the child.

[00:03:16]There's an incident with the neighbor, that's an opportunity. These are all opportunities for us to check in on that child because when when they come to the point where they need me, we've missed all of those stepping stones that potentially could have prevented them ever needing me in the first place.

[00:03:35]>> So, he was in and out of custody many times.

[00:03:38]>> A presentation at this junior high school is also an opportunity to check in. The Calgary Police Discovery Center is a nonprofit partnered with Calgary Police. It educates kids about crime prevention and community safety. This lesson is about drugs, guns, and gangs.

[00:03:53]>> Now, 12 seems really young, but we're actually seeing recruitment start as young as 8 years old.

[00:03:58]>> The center gives hundreds of these presentations every year trying to dissuade kids from getting into trouble.

[00:04:04]>> I thought it was very alarming how kids and like youth are actually getting involved into gangs at like such a young age and doing such violent things like, you know, smuggling drugs. It highlights the dangers of breaking the law.

[00:04:17]>> Yeah, definitely. It kind of kind of woke me up. Something I've never like never seen or heard.

[00:04:22]>> Youth do need this information and these are very tough conversations to have.

[00:04:27]But we're happy to start the conversation. We're happy to open that dialogue just to get youth and teachers and adults and parents thinking about this kind of stuff and thinking about how this impacts them and how this impacts the wider community as a whole.

[00:04:41]We've also got MDMA at the top there.

[00:04:43]Those ones are shaped like Homer Simpson's head.

[00:04:45]>> These school presentations are one piece of the puzzle. So too is hiring the full complement of school resource officers.

[00:04:51]There's funding for nearly 40 positions.

[00:04:53]Right now about a dozen are vacant.

[00:04:55]>> It is due to staffing shortage shortages, but it is everywhere within our our organization right now. Um with that being said, school resource officers are a priority. Most of us try our best to focus on our schools, but there's a lot that we're missing out on, unfortunately. And there's a lot of students that are missing having that role model and having that engagement because of that. So, yeah, in a perfect world, I would love to see us in every high school. I'd love to be in every junior high school. But the reality is we can't and we can only do what we can with the resources that we have right now. And I think we're doing the best we can. However, there's always room for improvement.

[00:05:28]>> Birdie is proving there's more work to do. Right now, she's laying around 50 criminal charges every year. That includes weapons offenses, assault, mischief, and property damage. Brian Labby, CBC News, Calgary.