Staff shortages impacted LPS through 2022

By Lethbridge Herald on December 28, 2022.

Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman Police Chief Shahin Mehdizadeh says he is proud of the work the Lethbridge Police Service has done through a challenging year and staff shortages.

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

The year 2022 was another extremely busy and challenging year but also a year full of opportunities for the Lethbridge Police Service, says Chief Shahin Mehdizadeh. 

He said that even though it was a challenging year, the department is on the right path. 

“The department has been on the right course moving forward internally, as well as serving the community,” said Mehdizadeh. 

He said one of the highlights of 2022 was being able to hire nine new police officers and five Community Peace Officers. 

“And we have three additional Community Peace Officers that have been hired and offered training in 2023, because we only get so many spots in the school to train,” said Mehdizadeh. 

He said they are bringing the numbers up on the CPO side of the house. 

“We hired a new deputy chief who’s been a welcome addition to the team and really has strengthened our leadership core moving forward,” said Mehdizadeh. 

He said 2022 was a significant year for council support to add to their budget for them to be able to hire more police officers and equally important civilians in their department moving forward.

“Another highlight of 2022 we brought a facility dog Kourt within our Victim Services Unit and Kourt actually has been used a lot both for victims of crime to help on that front, and also internally with our employees to release some of the stress on them and she’s been significant,” said Mehdizadeh.

Something else that was important to note, according to Mehdizadeh, is the fact that they started the LPS Master Plan which will evaluate their current policing levels, equipment and infrastructure. 

“This plan would be integral to submit to the council as we’re looking at 10 years or so down the road. On what our facilities are going to look like, and how we can actually start building up not only for tomorrow but for many years down the road,” said Mehdizadeh. 

He said this has never been done before but the city helped them to hire consultants to prepare the Master Plan which is going to provide them with the opportunity to grow and meet their needs.

The year 2022 was also a milestone year for the Victim Services Unit, as they celebrated their 30th anniversary. 

“That was a significant milestone and these volunteers, I can’t speak enough about what they do and how they do it, they’re amazing people and the fact that they give their time to people during their worst, while suffering is significant. We’re very proud of them,” said Mehdizadeh. 

He said that another highlight was being able to return to in-person events, which the 30th anniversary celebration was one of them. 

Mehdizadeh also highlighted their new Virtual Opioid Dependency program, a provincial program where they have partnered with Alberta Health Services. 

“This program is going to allow LPS to actually be more proactive to connect people that come into our cell block and are suffering from opioid addiction with treatment immediately right from here,” said Mehdizadeh. 

He said The Watch program is already doing that on the street, trying to connect people with this program, but this also gives LPS an opportunity as they are going into their cell block to be able to offer it to them and hopefully get them on the path of recovery. 

Mehdizadeh said other highlights included six LPS employees receiving Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee medals and The Watch program receiving a community justice award. 

“We celebrated, The Watch manager was gifted a Blackfoot name. We have several employees who’ve been honoured with a Blackfoot name, and Jeff Cove also received a Blackfoot name,” said Mehdizadeh. 

Another highlight was the addition of a second PACT team, said Mehdizadeh. He also highlighted a record breaking of historical proportions at one of the department’s operations. 

“We’ve had significant drug seizures in 2022, actually we’ve had historic amounts of drug seizures in Lethbridge in 2022, which speaks very highly of the work that our local teams are doing to curb drugs and also the intelligence they are using to identify high level drug traffickers coming into the city,” said Mehdizadeh. 

He said this is alarming in one sense knowing there is so much drugs coming, but it is also soothing to know that our officers are actually getting the perpetrators. 

“Maybe it was coming before but we were not catching it, but now we’re actually getting them,” said Mehdizadeh. 

When it comes to challenges in 2022, Mehdizadeh said staffing shortages were definitely one of the biggest challenges of the year. 

“Frontline staff shortages we’ve been really struggling with. Having said that, our team has done an amazing job to still continue serving the public. In fact, not only just serve the public, but continue to do the good work that they do with all those drug seizures and even reducing crime on many different levels in 2022,” said Mehdizadeh. 

He said the Crime Severity Index decreased by seven percent in 2021, but even then the CSI is still high and they want to continue to see a downward trend. He said in 2020 the CSI decreased by three per cent. 

“Some of the steps we’ve taken to address the challenges include a more data-driven model of policing, to actually effectively deploy our resources through compstat and (the) Enhancing Prolific Offender Management program,” said Mehdizadeh.

He said other steps include adding a second PACT team to deal with mental health and trying to get those patients the proper resources they need, while the Youth Engagement team provide early outreach intervention to at-risk youth.

“We continue with these programs to focus on what’s important in the community,” said Mehdizadeh. 

He said another significant issue they had in 2022 was the encampment situation. 

Mehdizadeh said they have been quite engaged on that front, to do their part as partners with the city to manage those issues, but unfortunately there is no quick fix for that at this point.

“I’ve actually traveled to many communities in Canada in the last year, and this is a significant issue everywhere, but it’s still a challenge that we have and we’re working with the city and other partners to be a productive partner in the whole issue as we move forward,” said Mehdizadeh.

As for 2023, Mehdizadeh said he is looking forward to engaging with the community through more town halls.

“I would like to have four in different parts of the city, like one in the north, south, downtown and West side to actually connect with our citizens in different regions of the city and hear from them directly,” said Mehdizadeh. 

He said he will continue with his impromptu coffee chats with the citizens whenever possible.

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