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City council gave the green light Monday for the Calgary Police Service to use money collected from traffic fines to hire 50 new officers.

The new members will start working as early as mid-2017 after council unanimously approved the request.

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“Our capacity issues are being challenged right now,” Chief Roger Chaffin told council.

“It’s not just simply a case of getting to more calls for service,” he said. “It’s actually being able to respond to the community in the ways that we’d like to. We still see significant challenges, for instance, in meeting the demands for school resource officers.”

The police added 10 positions in 2015 and none so far in 2016.

The citizen-to-officer ratio in Calgary rose to 616 from 600 in 2014. The 50 new officers will lower the ratio to about 613.

Coun. Ward Sutherland, who sits on the Calgary police commission, said amid a tough economy, an increase in crime severity and more 911 calls mean “the strain is now showing up.”

The $7.5 million needed for the new positions will be funded from traffic tickets for speeding, running red lights and other offences.

But Chaffin said that doesn’t mean police officers will be handing out more tickets to add staff.

“I can’t imagine any of our officers actually think this ticket is going to get us another person,” he said. “We understand the summonses relate directly to traffic safety.”