Alberta’s police watchdog is launching an investigation into former Calgary Police Chief Rick Hanson and the service.

The investigation comes after CTV News revealed internal documents that show Hanson made an 11th hour move to send 22 new police officers to work in Northeast Calgary, just one day before he announced he was running for political office in that same part of the city.

“These are very concerning allegations and we take them seriously,” wrote Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley in a statement.

Ganley said the investigation will centre on whether the decisions made by Hanson and the police force “provide reasonable grounds to believe an offence has been committed.”

The Alberta Director of Law Enforcement, Bill Sweeney, ordered the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) to conduct an investigation after current Police Chief Paul Cook brought the issue to his attention.

ASIRT declined to comment on the specifics of the case.

In a written statement Cook defended the actions of the force saying the 22 officers were sent to District Five, in Northeast Calgary, based solely on need.

“The referral to ASIRT should not be taken in any way as an admission or suggestion that any member of the Calgary Police Service misconducted themselves, in any way,” wrote Cook.

Police spokesperson Kevan Stuart abruptly ended a press conference held on Thursday to discuss changes to Calgary policing districts.

Stuart told reporters he did not believe Hanson’s political candidacy created a conflict of interest, even after sending a memo ordering the officers to District Five less than one hour before his resignation took effect.

“I have no idea what the political question is. I don’t follow politics. I know the Calgary Police Service needed officers in that area,” said Stuart.

Calgary Police Commission Chair Rod Fong defended the police service while insisting that the Commission had nothing to do with the decisions that were made.

“The Commission is confident that the CPS makes its decisions based on objective evidence and analysis about changing demographics,” wrote Fong in a written statement.

PC Leader Ric McIver said he only found out about Hanson's last-minute move to send officers to District Five through the media.

McIver was not the PC party leader at the time. He supports the ASIRT investigation and said once the results are public, the next steps will become clear. "The public needs to know what actually happened," said McIver.　

Internal documents show Hanson wrote a memo to CPS staff less than one hour before his term as chief expired on March 13, explaining that the 22 officers were being committed to District Five“to address boundary changes and projected workload.”

On March 14, the day he announced his PC candidacy in Calgary-Cross Hanson sent another email at 11:31 p.m. to the CPS finance department outlining the changes in detail.

“This is done with Paul's [sic] full knowledge and approval as these decisions were made last week,” Hanson wrote, referring to current Police Chief Cook who replied to the email within minutes confirming Hanson’s decision would be followed through.

Despite publicly reporting earlier that Hanson’s term ended March 13, the CPS now claims Hanson’s term as chief actually ended at 11:59 p.m. on March 14.

If that’s true, Hanson would have been a PC candidate while he was still Chief of Police.

University of Calgary law professor Chris Levy said Hanson’s decision “lends itself to suspicion that he seriously confused his role in his final hours as Chief with his role as a Tory Candidate in the Provincial Election,” wrote Levy in an email to CTV News. “He above most candidates should have behaved like Caesar’s wife and been above anything that might cast the slightest appearance of doubt on his integrity.”

CTV News reached out to both Calgary City Councillors – Ward Sutherland and Diane Colley Urquhart -- who sit on the Police Commission, but neither returned calls.

Hanson lost the May 5 provincial election to NDP candidate Ricardo Miranda by just 100 votes