Just over a dozen complaints have been handed in to Calgary Police Chief Roger Chaffin, the latest in a long list of allegations of bullying and harassment engulfing the force.

The documents were submitted on Friday and accuse the CPS of failing to provide a safe environment for the complainants, resulting in years of bullying and harassment.

Dunphy Best Blocksom LLP, representing the complainants, says that the filing of formal complaints is the first step in initiating an external investigation.

Now, Chaffin, CPS lawyers and DBB will now work together to choose an external investigator.

Rachel West, the lead counsel for DBB, says that it will take some time to have everything in place.

"We are confident that a third-party investigator will be in place by the end of the month so they can be brought forward to the next meeting."

West said that the investigator will need to look at a lot of elements throughout the process,

"The investigator will largely have to look at what the complaints are and determine what's an appropriate process going forward. So this isn't going to be an overnight situation but we are putting a lot of pressure, as is the Calgary Police Commission on the CPS to make sure this is moved forward as expeditiously as possible."

West said they have been contacted by 38 current and former members of the CPS but all of those people may or may not submit a formal complaint.

Last week, Chief Roger Chaffin said he could not commit to a timeline to have a third-party advocate in place.

He also said that the police officers themselves want to move forward with this. "They want to do this, but they want their collective agreement to be respected in this process."

Chaffin says it will take some time to have a culture change in the force. "It's going to take days, weeks and in some cases, years of work. We are still dealing with the clash of moving from a paramilitary organization into an involved workplace. There are some clashes there that take some time to fully move through."

The Calgary Police Service did not make any comment on the latest development in the issue.