LPS conference addresses social disorder and crime
By Lethbridge Herald on September 24, 2024.
Sgt. Ryan Darroch, with the Lethbridge Police Services Downtown Policing Unit, speaks to reporters about the Social Disorder and Urban Crime Conference Tuesday at the Sandman Signature Hotel.
Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-GuzmanAlejandra Pulido-Guzman – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – apulido@lethbridgeherald.com
The Lethbridge Police Service hosted frontline police, justice, health and social service workers from across the province this week as part of the Social Disorder and Urban Crime Conference.
The event, which was the first of its kind in Alberta was proposed and planned by Sgt. Ryan Darroch of the Downtown Policing Unit, it took place at the Sandman Signature Hotel from Monday to Wednesday and it was opened by Mike Ellis, Deputy Premier and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services.
Sgt. Darroch spoke to reporters Wednesday afternoon about the conference and said the idea behind it was to collaborate with other agencies and share best practices, promote partnerships, facilitate meaningful intervention strategies and develop sustainable solutions to reduce the harm caused by addictions, mental health issues, poverty, crime and social disorder faced by communities throughout Canada.
“My goal in the Social Disorder Urban Crime Conference was to bring together like-minded individuals from across western Canada who are dealing with the same problems that we’re having here in Lethbridge when it comes to our street issues, from violence to drug use, to just social disorder in general,” he said.
Darroch added that his vision for the event also included bringing different organizations together to learn from one another about what is working, what is not and learn from each other’s successes and failures.
“As we’ve seen, there is no one answer to all these problems we’re seeing in western Canada in relation to the drug crisis and it’s important to learn from other organizations to save ourselves time, money and wasted resources basically,” said Darroch.
He said one thing he has learned so far from other organizations is about collaboration with community partners like health organizations, shelter operators and to manage the problems they are seeing on the streets with a balanced approached between community engagement and enforcement.
“We cannot win this or solve this problem through enforcement or not enforcing the law at all,” said Darroch.
When it comes to trends that have come up during the conference, Darroch said one of the most consistent trends is the messaging and methamphetamine is extremely popular and is heavily used across Western Canada.
“We have approximately 130 attendees for the conference. And they come from all across western Canada. We have some from British Columbia, we have some from Saskatchewan who are all attempting to tackle this big problem and we’re all having the same problems,” said Darroch.
He said there is comfort in knowing Lethbridge is not the only place dealing with an opioid and methamphetamine crisis.
When talking about something that has been highlighted as a successful method and that other municipalities have shown interested in learning about, Darroch said they have been praising and asking questions about the Clean Sweep Program, which is run and organized by the Downtown Lethbridge Business Revitalization Zone.
“One of the hardest parts when it comes to social disorder, encampment cleanup, that kind of stuff and the level of garbage and disruption that comes from those events, someone needs to clean that up,” said Darroch.
He said that is why Clean Sweep has caught a lot of attention, with everyone asking how the program is operated.
“We have been proud to share that information as one of Lethbridge’s designed and created win for sure,” said Darroch.
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Sharing ideas is good, with consideration that each municipality has its own unique issues. But Lethbridge has allowed a criminals to run wild downtown because they know police will do nothing. Others come in from other municipalities because it is easier to conduct illegal activities in Lethbridge because police allow it, especially when those centers increase police actions against them. Lethbridge is an easy mark!
Listen to the people who live and work in our city, the ones leadership ignore, the ones impacted directly by the lack of policing.
Right on, Say What! Thank you for phrasing soo well what soo many citizens experience and know to be true.
These kind of “conferences” are so self serving to the jobholders of this enabling and ever enlarging drug culture industry. One clue is that only select people or groups are invited. If you are not going to echo the continuing empires and placement of this industry that supports these jobs and industries – you are NOT welcome.
Note over and over again what these conference attenders don’t say.
Ryan knows only to well the large number of addicts or consumers of street drugs (and the like )who just want to party. They don’t like the shelter (violence, theft, bugs, gangs etc.) nor do they want to be housed in any “gated” community (community care campuses and the like) that try to impose rules on their lifestyle chose.
Yes, a few move forward and accept dry out centers, recovery centers and the like, but even fewer survive the process. What is the measure of the survival rating of the community at large? The resiliency of the community at large is being pushed to the limit.
How many city councilors who before and after they were elected could even pinpoint the shelter on a map? I know this because I had 2 councilors (shortly after being elected)ask me where it was. How many councilors would walk through Galt gardens without a police escort? Or even the shelter area for that matter?
The city about 40 years ago moved the shelter from downtown,thinking that would “clean up” downtown. All that was accomplished was increase the areas that need to be “cleaned up”, to borrow a city phrase. Same thing but more piles doesn’t solve anything. And fundamentally not understanding nor accepting the primary mindset of the street drug users will always lead to failure. But it will support more jobs, construction (to the tune of millions and millions)and self serving conferences.
So who is the biggest parasite to the community at large, the empires of this industry or the drug users. Perhaps, both?