LPS chief commits to accountability

By Lethbridge Herald on March 25, 2021.

Lethbridge Police Chief Shahin Mehdizadeh speaks with reporters at an earlier press conference. Herald file photo

Tim Kalinowski
Lethbridge Herald
tkalinowski@lethbridgeherald.com
Lethbridge Chief of Police Shahin Mehdizadeh committed to greater accountability and transparency for the Lethbridge Police Service moving forward during his presentation to the Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs on Thursday.
“Police work is about accountability,” he stressed during SACPA’s YouTube livestream weekly speaker series. “We have to be accountable to our citizens … Nobody works for me. We are here to work for our citizens. I think I have made that clear to our staff here. And that comes with a huge level of responsibility; especially in the policing business when you are given extraordinary powers to deal with crime, deal with issues, and keep the citizens safe.”
Mehdizadeh said prior to receiving the letter from Alberta Justice Minister Kaycee Madu on Tuesday, which demanded an action plan to deal with ongoing controversies at the LPS by April 16 and threatened to dissolve the police force otherwise, he and his staff were already working on such a plan.
“We have been working on it diligently,” Mehdizadeh told SACPA viewers. “And, in fact, every day we are coming up with more ideas that we just want to share with the Minister as these efforts are not something that we just created. We have had many efforts in the last few months that have been implemented a long time ago. This plan comes under many different pillars. One is obviously ethics and accountability.”
Mehdizadeh went on to briefly explain the other four pillars as well, which include: leadership development, employee wellness and mental health, new database access guidelines, and a more effective communication strategy for the short term and long term both internally and externally.
“Once we have it actually completed and presented to the Minister, I will be more than happy to share that with the media (in detail),” he said.
Mehdizadeh also confessed he knew there were problems facing the Lethbridge Police Service, and past “messes,” he was going to have to clean up coming in as the new chief.
“Before my time here I knew about some of these incidents that are actually coming out, but one thing I didn’t expect is the pressure,” he explained. “I knew there would be public pressure, but now the pressure is a little more than what I had expected.”
However, Mehdizadeh said, he has a thick skin and a great team in place to move forward beyond these scandals.
“We are on the right track,” Mehdizadeh stated at one point in his presentation.
“If people think in six months somebody can come in and change everything, and make it perfect– I don’t have that magic wand. But we are on the right track, and we have a great team here to make it work, and make it happen. But what it does take is patience.
“I believe the citizens are supporting us,” he added, “and we are trying to move forward and look at what we do today and tomorrow versus keep living in the past.”
Mehdizadeh also elaborated on the latest suspension of five officers for circulating controversial memes. He said, contrary to what some in the media have suggested, these five suspensions have very little to do with Lethbridge West MLA Shannon Phillips.
“That file is going to a hearing soon, and what I can share with you is it is not about Ms. Phillips,” he confirmed. “There is one comment about Ms. Phillips that is really not that critical (of her). In that case, it is going to a public hearing and all that evidence once it is presented people are going to know that this wasn’t a group that was set up to talk about Ms. Phillips. They were talking about everything, and most of the discussion had to do more with the executive and people in this department.”
Mehdizadeh refused to comment when asked by SACPA attendees on the ongoing ASIRT investigation of five other officers and one civilian employee who allegedly accessed Phillips personal information for no police purpose as the process is still unfolding.
He repeated his previous statements that the two officers who admitted to engaging in an unauthorized surveillance of Phillips in 2017 did so of their own accord, and not due to any specific political bias within the police service itself.
“First of all, we have no evidence at all that there has been any partisan use for information,” he stated in response to a question asked about potential bias. “Ms Phillips investigation that was completed against two officers had to do with two people making a decision to paint outside the lines as far as our policies in relation to the use of databases here.”
Mehdizadeh said the LPS is dedicated to rebuilding full public trust in the police force, and going forward from here after these high profile instances, (which he reminded SACPA viewers several times occurred three to four years ago), are appropriately dealt with using the correct processes.
“If we want to have public trust, we have to make sure we have an accountable and responsible organization,” he stated. “A lot of efforts have been put in place the last few months to really send that message (to LPS employees). And not only send a message, but also show it through action by the processes in place that we mean what we say.”
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