‘Coffee with a Cop’ session hears seniors concerns

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on April 28, 2023.

Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman Lethbridge Police Chief Shahin Mehdizadeh is welcomed by board vice-president Helen Gepneris as he visited Nord-Bridge Senior Centre Thursday morning their "Coffee with a Cop" session.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

Nord-Bridge Senior Centre hosted “Coffee with a Cop” Thursday in which seniors had the opportunity to talk to, ask questions of and express their concerns to Lethbridge Police Service Chief Shahin Mehdizadeh.

After having breakfast on Thursday morning, Mehdizadeh stood in the middle of the dining room and asked the seniors present to take the opportunity to let him know what was on their minds.

Mehdizadeh was asked multiple questions that ranged from traffic, drug crimes, and speed zones, to what to do when potentially being a victim of fraud.

One resident asked him about a motorcycle she had seen on Mayor Magrath Drive South on Wednesday with someone wearing a jacket that said police on it. She was wondering if that was a legitimate police officer since she has never seen one riding a motorbike before.

“During the summer months, we have our traffic officers and some of them are motorcycle trained, and they actually go on the bikes and enforce traffic on motorcycles,” said Mehdizadeh.

Another resident shared a concerning visit she had at her door when a stranger knocked on it asking her questions that made her uncomfortable. She told Mehdizadeh that she called the police, but they never showed up.

“When someone comes to your door and asks you a simple question, if it’s suspicious sometimes what they’re asking, we certainly want you to call, but then again, we only got so many officers and we can’t go to every call, especially if a crime is not committed. But I’m glad you called because that information is captured in our database,” said Mehdizadeh.

 He explained that when someone calls and reports someone randomly knocking on their door and they receive other calls from the same area, then they can send an officer to investigate if someone is prowling in a certain area of the city. And therefore, it was important for citizens to report those types of incidents.

Another resident asked why playground zones still have a speed limit of 30 kilometres per hour when there are no children in playgrounds anymore. She said 40 years ago, she saw children everywhere in the schools and playgrounds and now there is no children outside anymore. She said therefore the speed limit should not be 30 anymore.

“Because even though you don’t see them when you are, they could be there, period. These decisions are made to really protect the safety of our children, because just because they’re not there seven days of the week, they might be there that one time that somebody is speeding and we certainly don’t want anyone in this city, especially our children to get harmed because of that,” said Mehdizadeh.

One resident did not have a question, but rather a suggestion for Mehdizadeh. She suggested to bring back police officer on horseback. She said it would be great to see a couple of horseback riding police officers around Henderson Lake Park.

“If we had enough police officers, I would love that, but we are very short. We are hiring as much as we can, but it will take us a few years to fill the vacancies and actually add to the compliment that we got the budget to do,” said Mehdizadeh.

 He explained to her that even though he would love the idea of having horseback riding officers, it would be too expensive to accomplish.

 “To have people on horseback riding, you have to have special training, you have to have special equipment, you have to have the horses, you have to have a place for the horses, you have to feed them, it’s not a cheap thing, it’s very expensive,” said Mehdizadeh.

Follow @APulidoHerald on Twitter

Comments are closed.