Technology, teamwork, and a little friendly competition: Altia at CACP 2026

Technology, teamwork, and a little friendly competition: Altia at CACP 2026.

Altia US | Canada was delighted to join police chiefs, senior law enforcement leaders and partners from across Canada at the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) 2026 Summit, hosted in Edmonton. 

Across the event, one message came through particularly strongly. Policing is getting more complex, and technology has a growing role to play in helping services keep up. 

The official program reflected that challenge. Discussions ranged from cross-border threats and intelligence sharing to lawful access and digital evidence. There were also plenty of conversations about workforce transformation, AI, organizational resilience and the changing demands placed on police services. 

However, some of our most valuable and interesting conversations happened away from the main stage. At the Altia stand, we had the opportunity to speak directly with policing leaders. 

Doing more with the teams already in place 

A recurring theme in our conversations was the need to make officers’ and investigators’ lives easier. 

Police services are managing increasingly complex investigations and growing amounts of information. However, this often comes without a matching increase in resources. 

For many of the chiefs and senior leaders we spoke with, the question wasn’t how to add more capacity. Instead, it was how technology could help their existing teams work more effectively. 

That echoed themes in the CACP program itself. Sessions explored the pressures of a changing workforce and the importance of focusing sworn members on core operational priorities. They also considered how technology, partnerships and organizational change can help build police agencies fit for the future. 

For Altia, that’s exactly where investigative technology should make a difference. It should cut down unnecessary manual work and help investigators make sense of complex information faster. Ultimately, it should give skilled people more time for work that needs their judgement and experience. 

Technology that supports policing, rather than adding to the burden 

Another big takeaway from Edmonton was that technology adoption cannot simply be about introducing more technology. 

CACP’s program described policing as entering a period of significant change, driven by AI, evolving crime, changing community expectations and workforce transformation. 

As a result, choosing the right technology is more important than ever for police leaders. The real value lies in solutions that address genuine operational problems. 

For investigative teams, that means tools that can reduce repetitive processes and make better use of existing data. They can also improve consistency and help investigators focus their expertise where it has the greatest impact. 

The conversations we had at CACP reinforced our belief that this is where technology providers need to concentrate. First, they need to understand the reality of an investigator’s working day. Then, they need to build tools around it. 

And, of course, there was golf… 

No exhibition is complete without a little friendly competition. 

Our putting challenge proved extremely popular throughout the event. It brought plenty of visitors, and some seriously impressive putting, to the Altia stand. 

A huge congratulations once again to our winners: 

• James Moore – Alberta Securities Commission  

• Darren MacDougall – Charlottetown, PEI  

• Mike MacKinnon – Manitoba Association of Chiefs of Police  

Thank you to everyone who stopped by and took a putt. More importantly, thank you to everyone who spent time talking with the Altia team. 

Continuing the conversation 

CACP 2026 was a valuable opportunity to hear directly from Canadian policing leaders about the challenges their organizations are facing. 

We discussed technology, workforce capacity, digital evidence, organized crime and the growing challenge of financial investigations. Throughout those conversations, one priority came through time and time again. Policing teams need the right tools to achieve more with the resources and expertise they already have. 

Financial crime also came up often. In fact, it deserves its own spotlight. We’ve covered that separately, along with how Altia’s financial investigation tools are responding to it. 

We came away from Edmonton with some fantastic conversations to continue. We also gained a clearer picture of how Altia can support Canadian law enforcement as investigative demands evolve. 

To everyone who visited the stand: thank you. We look forward to seeing you again next year, though our putting champions might have some titles to defend.