CALGARY -- Calgary's chief of police Mark Neufeld spent some time over the holidays with CTV Calgary's Tara Nelson to reflect on the work that the men and women of the Calgary Police Service have done throughout the year and the force's priorities moving forward.

While Calgary's homicide rate dropped in 2019, Chief Mark Neufeld says the main concern for him is the frequency of gun violence in the city.

"It's not a record year by any means, but it's still a high year for us,” he said. “In comparison to last year, I think we were in the 40s but we are upwards of 80 now. Besides the deaths, we've had some innocent people injured as well."

Neufeld says the sharp increase of shootings goes hand-in-hand with people living high-risk lifestyles and a rise in organized crime.

"There have been some ongoing feuds going. I think two years ago we had a spike as well and there was a lot of good work done by the police at that time and some arrests made,” he said.

He adds the resurgence is likely due to some of those players getting out of jail and returning to their old ways.

Drug-related calls also take up a lot of police resources, Neufeld says, especially when it comes to the supervised consumption site at the Sheldon M. Chumir Medical Centre. He says more officers have been assigned on patrol in that area.

"The facility was designed around the opioid epidemic, where there is an average of two people dying per day in Alberta. One thing we ended up finding and didn't anticipate was that methamphetamine returned to the picture in the way that it has,” he said. “Folks that are using the site are either using methamphetamines or using them alongside the opioids. That results in a very different user or client in the area."

Despite the fact that the provincial government has frozen funding for future sites, Neufeld says the evidence shows the facility does save lives.

"I think there needs to be more services that go alongside that approach,” he said. “I think it's good. Recently we heard there would be 4,000 additional treatment beds and I think that's going to be helpful as well."

However, he says more needs to be done to get people out of addiction in Calgary and Alberta.

"If the whole strategy is a safe consumption site, you're going to have consumption into perpetuity so it's really important to have a broader strategy than that,” he said.

Neufeld says they've been able to provide a stronger presence in the area, but he still feels for the businesses and residents in the area who are concerned about the SCS itself.

"When you speak to them, they feel better, but it's difficult to maintain it over the long term,” he said.

There has also been talk about more safety being added to the downtown core, partly due to the SCS but also because of Calgary's new arena which is now on the horizon. Some councillors have mentioned they want to see the CPS reopen the Victoria Park station in order to help keep the peace.

Neufeld says the station was closed a number of years ago for a variety of reasons.

"It didn't seem to be in the greatest location in terms of accessibility, parking and stations are expensive,” he said. “By the time we go and set up a station and install security, it can be expensive. We were only using it as a gathering place."

Neufeld says the station cost them about $400,000 a year to keep open.

"When you're in an environment where there is some cost-cutting, it seemed obvious to close that,” he said.

Now that the CPS is through the budget process for the next four years, there isn't any plan for any bricks-and-mortar stations to go up anywhere.

"Our thing right now is to make sure that we have police officers on the street right now and engaging with the public and being accessible to the public," he said. "There would be a number of people who would be comforted by that, but it comes at a cost."

As for the new year, Neufeld has a number of priorities he'd like to tackle, including rebuilding the CPS' executive team and a full review of the CPS priorities.

"We need be very clear about what our priorities are for 2020 and what that vision is," he said. "Very early in 2020 we are going to develop those priorities and make it very clear about where we are going to invest.

"Police agencies like ours don't do well in ambiguity. There are so many things that we could do and we just have to prioritize and make clear what we are doing."