LPS looks to put more boots on the ground
By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on October 22, 2022.
Herald photo by Al Beeber
The police are asking city council to approve the hiring of 22 officers and other staff in their 2023-26 budget request. The force has been dealing with a $1 million annual budget cut since 2021-22. Except for community peace officers, no sworn officers have been added since 2014.LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com
The Lethbridge Police Service is seeking to hire a total of 22 officers including seven for youth engagement over the next three years. It also wants support for officers including in records management, FOIP, Human Resources and Information Technology.
“No civilian staff have been created in the Lethbridge Police Service since 2012 and no sworn officers have been added since 2014 other than the Community Police Officers Initiative in 2019. This initiative includes adjusting for the $1 million cut in 2021-2022,” says the LPS in its submission to the City which is contained in the draft budget that was presented to city council acting as the Economic Standing Policy Committee.
“Police call response and officer availability is significantly challenged, impacting service levels to the community. Civilian workload has increased but no new staff have been added in the past two budget cycles which leaves trained officers to do work that could be completed by civilians,” says the LPS in the draft document.
“Police staffing needs will force permanent reassignment of officers resulting in a reduction or elimination of services to the community without this increase. There is increasing new demands on the police because of an increase in population, social issues, investigative demands, court and legislative demands and new provincial requirements. These must be addressed in order to maintain a safe and viable community,” says the LPS.
For 2023, the police want seven full-time youth engagement officers, 15.5 FTE civilian staff and two FTE officers for a total of 24.5 additional staff. In 2024, the police are asking for seven full-time officers and six more in 2025. No additional staff are being requested for 2026.
The budget difference would be an additional $2,235,460 in 2023, $4,084,673 in ’24, $4,952,661 in ’25 and $4,961,464 in ’26.
The initiative includes adjusting for the $1 million budget cut in 2021-22.
In September, LPS chief Shahin Mehdizadeh told the Economic SPC that without additional manpower there will be a significant negative impact on the community.
He said overtime is “through the roof” and that police are facing increasing amounts of burnout and medical leave.
That SPC was told the city should have a staff of about 212 given levels in other comparably-sized Canadian communities. It currently employs 165 people.
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I know there needs to be more boots on the ground, but question the suggested posting of the 2023 new hires.
We have a growing and serious problem from the encampments and all the crime that comes from them. No one is addressing the issues. Residents are often threatened, initimidated and even assaulted while walking downtown near the hotspots such as the library, the Civic Center, the LSCO, the park n ride terminal and other businesses in the area. This matters are not being dealt with and should be the immediate concerns!
There needs to be a unit that has 4 full time officers 24/7 to support the Downtown Unit to respond to issues involving the homeless and drug related issues that can move into other areas of the city to support those officers when needed. A targeted crime reduction approach is needed.
I know from working security at many of the high incident areas that police are short staffed in these areas. Securiy has has their hands bound on several sites, told to not approach those doing drugs onsite, but call police with come areas seeing these incidents over 20 times per day! What is the point of having secuity if people cannot be asked to move along when committing these offenses, but police are called. When police are called they are busy dealing with other matters often and it isn’t abnormal to see only 8-10 officers patrolling the whole city in the daytime, making responses often over an hour and by that time offenders are gone, but they now think it is okay to do drugs in that area! No deterent! We spend millions every year on security which is needed to offset the addiction/homeless issues and when you bind their hands you may as well use fully trained police who can respond faster with more boots on the ground . . . or allow security to do their jobs!!
The drug crisis, addiction is the cause of many of the city issues. Millions are spent on non-profits to counter the issues created and just like in Vancouver DTES, the numbers of non-profits grow, along with the crisis because we are no using the right tools to resolve this crisis.
Homelessness, fatal overdoses, destroyed families, high costs to counter high crime rates, many assaults, threats, vandalism, property damage, parks being taken over by encampments, and many more negative impacts are the results of the addiction.
We must get tough on the addiction issues and stop this failed harm reduction practice that only kills more addicts every year and invites more people into the world of addiction and start enforcing laws, forcing long term treatment programs that are effective on these people.
I would estimate without any facts before me that 80% of the calls for police in the downtown are, including the shelter, are all related to the homeless/addict/encampment issues and those people who are committing the crimes so support their lifestyle and addicion, Break and enters, vandalism, assault, shoplifting, violence crimes/weapons charges, etc.
Pampering these people is only killing them with compassion, as they slowly kill themselves while destroying the community, but you can’t seem to wake up the leaders of this city to this fact, They appear to make the same mistakes the leaders in Vancouver have made, listening to the non-profits who now over-run DTES with over 240 organizations.
We need more police, trained for targeted crime reduction, but we need the backing of the judicial and penal systems, the feds and the Alberta goverment. It shouldn’t matter what race you are, what group you are associated with, if you commit the crime, you should do the time! It is what used to be used as a deterent, but we have allowed this group to grow into a feral society where many told police not to fine them even, because they can’t afford to pay, so their brazen acts grow, knowing they can act with impunity!
We want our city, our parks, our streets and our neighbourhoods back! We need leaders to do that . . .!