And, now having been back in the great city of Calgary for almost 2 months I've noticed a few disturbing trends. This is one of them.
Private security guards, ubiquitous, some armed, some not, in private shops. In the Co-op, the liquor stores, Value Village even, handling all the shit the police don't want to deal with, like crime, merchants - in addition to having to pay taxes that presumably finance the police are now expected to stump up and hire their own security...
This is part of the overall strategy of police not involving themselves in things like vandalism and theft from automobiles ("You shouldn't have left valuables in your car..."). While there's no "official" policy try and report it and you'll discover pretty quickly this is not something they want to handle, it's a begrudging "IF YOU MUST WASTE OUR TIME....".
We're on a long and slippery slope...