LPS conference addresses social disorder and crime

By Lethbridge Herald on September 24, 2024.

Sgt. Ryan Darroch, with the Lethbridge Police Services Downtown Policing Unit, speaks to reporters about the Social Disorder and Urban Crime Conference Tuesday at the Sandman Signature Hotel. Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – apulido@lethbridgeherald.com

The Lethbridge Police Service hosted frontline police, justice, health and social service workers from across the province this week as part of the Social Disorder and Urban Crime Conference.

The event, which was the first of its kind in Alberta was proposed and planned by Sgt. Ryan Darroch of the Downtown Policing Unit, it took place at the Sandman Signature Hotel from Monday to Wednesday and it was opened by Mike Ellis, Deputy Premier and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services. 

Sgt. Darroch spoke to reporters Wednesday afternoon about the conference and said the idea behind it was to collaborate with other agencies and share best practices, promote partnerships, facilitate meaningful intervention strategies and develop sustainable solutions to reduce the harm caused by addictions, mental health issues, poverty, crime and social disorder faced by communities throughout Canada.

“My goal in the Social Disorder Urban Crime Conference was to bring together like-minded individuals from across western Canada who are dealing with the same problems that we’re having here in Lethbridge when it comes to our street issues, from violence to drug use, to just social disorder in general,” he said. 

Darroch added that his vision for the event also included bringing different organizations together to learn from one another about what is working, what is not and learn from each other’s successes and failures. 

“As we’ve seen, there is no one answer to all these problems we’re seeing in western Canada in relation to the drug crisis and it’s important to learn from other organizations to save ourselves time, money and wasted resources basically,” said Darroch. 

He said one thing he has learned so far from other organizations is about collaboration with community partners like health organizations, shelter operators and to manage the problems they are seeing on the streets with a balanced approached between community engagement and enforcement. 

“We cannot win this or solve this problem through enforcement or not enforcing the law at all,” said Darroch. 

When it comes to trends that have come up during the conference, Darroch said one of the most consistent trends is the messaging and methamphetamine is extremely popular and is heavily used across Western Canada. 

“We have approximately 130 attendees for the conference. And they come from all across western Canada. We have some from British Columbia, we have some from Saskatchewan who are all attempting to tackle this big problem and we’re all having the same problems,” said Darroch. 

He said there is comfort in knowing Lethbridge is not the only place dealing with an opioid and methamphetamine crisis.

When talking about something that has been highlighted as a successful method and that other municipalities have shown interested in learning about, Darroch said they have been praising and asking questions about the Clean Sweep Program, which is run and organized by the Downtown Lethbridge Business Revitalization Zone. 

“One of the hardest parts when it comes to social disorder, encampment cleanup, that kind of stuff and the level of garbage and disruption that comes from those events, someone needs to clean that up,” said Darroch. 

He said that is why Clean Sweep has caught a lot of attention, with everyone asking how the program is operated. 

“We have been proud to share that information as one of Lethbridge’s designed and created win for sure,” said Darroch.