Lethbridge police welcome new constables to the force

By Lethbridge Herald on September 15, 2023.

New Const. Alison McCulloch receives her Lethbridge Police Service badge from her husband who is a member of the Royal Mounted Police, during the cadet graduation ceremony Friday at Lethbridge College. Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman

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

The Lethbridge Police Service welcomed three new constables after they graduated from 22 weeks of training in an award-winning program that was developed in partnership with Lethbridge College. 

The Police Cadet Training program, launched by the Centre for Justice and Human Services in 2017, was designed to meet industry demand and ensure officers are well-trained in both hard skills, such as firearms use, and soft skills, such as interpersonal communication, ethical accountability and teamwork.

LPS newest constables Alison McCulloch, Taylor Toner and Marc Trotta, graduated along with two cadets who joined the Taber Police Service and two who joined the Blood Tribe Police Service. 

During the graduation ceremony LPS Chief Shahin Mehdizadeh advised the new constables to exercise judgement and discretion and always be fair. 

After the ceremony Mehdizadeh spoke to media and said the addition of three constables has a huge impact on the service as they are in need of filling multiple positions. 

“We’re looking for more people; in fact we have started organizing two cadet classes a year that we’re going to be going on for the next three years, so we can actually have a more aggressive method to attract candidates,” said Mehdizadeh. 

During the ceremony a few of the graduating cadets who have family members in the service had their badges presented by family. One of those cadets was Alison McCulloch, who was given her badge by her husband who is a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. 

“That was a very special moment for me, especially him wearing my grandfather’s spurs. I always wanted to be a police officer, I’ve always looked up to my grandfather who I never got to meet because he passed away in the line of duty, so policing is my relationship to him,” said McCulloch. 

She said the program was very rigorous, with lots of long days, late nights, physically very demanding and mentally exhausting, but it was really nice to have a class that they could lean on each other. 

LPS Const. Jonathan Brunning, who took the role of cadet facilitator for the latest recruit class, spoke to media prior to the ceremony and said the training program was a big collaboration between the Lethbridge College, LPS, TPS and BTPS. 

“We made sure that this program ran smoothly while at the same time we had an opportunity to teach a lot of the things that they were learning as well, which was really fun,” said Brunning. 

He said the program is quite in-depth, and they had some of their subject matter experts come in through the police stations to teach the things that they are particularly versed in.

“We jumped in where we needed to fill a spot, or when it came to control tactics like use of force wise, that’s what we taught a lot of, and also firearms, driving instructing. There’s a lot things to cover in the 24 weeks so it’s fairly rigorous,” said Brunning. 

Dean for the Centre for Justice and Human Services with Lethbridge College, Trudi Mason said during the program cadets learn law and do physical training as well as firearms and control tactics.

“We deliver this program in conjunction with our police partners and it’s an incredible partnership. We work together to deliver all the curriculum, we overhauled the entire curriculum for this program working with our police service agencies, so we partner very closely with them,” said Mason. 

She said the partnerships with the different police service departments across southern Alberta is what makes it an award-winning program and the first in the country to be deliver this way. 

When it comes to advice for those thinking about joining the program, McCulloch said anyone could do it. 

“If you’re thinking about it give it a try. I’m 37 years old, I have three kids and a whole family. For me it was really daunting to go into this and wasn’t sure if I would make it, but absolutely like anybody can do it, no matter your age, no matter your gender, or your size, go for it,” said McCulloch.