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“There’s a new sheriff in town.”

That’s what a prolific panhandler sardonically remarked to constables Ryan Lashbrook and Jason Campbell upon learning a long-standing patrol centred around Calgary’s largest shopping mall had returned.

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“It was made known to us by one of the frequent panhandlers,” Lashbrook — an 11-year veteran of the service — recalled with a smile.

“Word spreads quite quickly in that crowd.”

Disbanded last spring due to lack of manpower, the Chinook Area Patrol (CAP) was reintroduced this fall after businesses and residents reported skyrocketing crime and public disturbance calls in its absence.

“The businesses to the east of the mall contacted me, advising they’d seen a pretty quick and marked increase in social disorder and crime in the area,” said community resource officer Const. James Partridge, the liaison between area community groups and CPS.

“Those summer months of 2017, it got on the radar of businesses pretty quick.”