Numbers show city police resolve vast majority of incidents without using force
By Lethbridge Herald on March 28, 2025.
Constables Tanner Campbell and James Steacy speak with people at Galt Gardens last summer during a patrol of the area. LPS report in 2024 they responded to nearly 32,000 calls for service and 99.4 per cent were resolved without any use of force.
Herald file photoAlejandra Pulido-Guzman – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – apulido@lethbridgeherald.com
Lethbridge Police Service announced Friday that in 2024 they responded to nearly 32,000 calls for service and 99.4 per cent were resolved without any use of force.
A use of force report must be completed when any force other than cooperative handcuffing or escort techniques are used, there’s an injury requiring medical intervention, a firearm or less lethal weapon is displayed, unintentional discharges or any incident requiring notification under the Police Act.
The 2024 use of force data was presented to the Lethbridge Police Commission during its public meeting Wednesday afternoon and Inspector Jason Walper said Friday that it is important to recognize that a very minimal number of occurrences happened where any level of force was used when dealing with a citizen.
“I think is also important to recognize that this include only the reported occurrences that the Lethbridge Police Service had. That excludes subject stops, which involves talking to citizens on the street where no record is made, it also excludes vehicle stops as well, and community engagement activities that officers are involved with in a everyday basis,” said Walper.
He said when taking in consideration all the different types of interactions LPS officers have with members of the community, the percentage of use of force is even lower than one per cent.
“This shows that we have a great community that respect our police officers, our officers are doing a great job interacting with the community, understanding how to speak to our citizens in a professional way,” said Walper.
Officers go through training to learn on how to communicate properly to prevent instances where the use of force is necessary. All LPS officers receive comprehensive training in verbal communication, de-escalation and disengagement techniques, incident assessment and threat identification as well as use of force techniques, control tactics and defense strategies. In addition, scenario-based training is used to simulate real-life situations.
Walper explained that when officers respond to a call, they’re trained to assess the situation and subjects involved, re-assess as the matter evolves and, in most cases, the use of de-escalation and disengagement techniques if safe to do so, to help gain the benefit of time and options enables a resolution that does not involve any use of force or result in injuries.
While not all calls can be resolved with just a conversation, high risk incidents or other circumstances where a use of force may be the only option for the safety of the victim, the officers or the subject, are still the exception. LPS data between 2020 and 2024, shows that every year police have resolved more than 99 percent of all calls for service without any force.
No firearms were discharged in 2024 and Walper said that’s something every officer aims for, as no officer ever wants to have to fire their weapon.
“That is definitely something we do not want to happen, but we do train our officers on how to do that if necessary,’ said Walper. “That is considered a high-risk but very low probability of it happening here in the city of Lethbridge, but we have to train for the worse and hope for the best.”
Officers are also trained in less-lethal force options, which include the use of Conducted Energy Weapons, commonly known as tasers, and police service dogs.
Walper said that when in a lethal-force situation, they have a lethal-force overwatch.
“One of our officers would be having a firearm, another officer may utilize a less-lethal option, and we certainly try to utilize those before resorting to lethal force,” said Walper.
He said that after any incident where any force was used, they document it and it goes through a rigorous review process.
“Through the patrol supervisor, or the on-scene supervisor, through the next level of supervision typically being a staff sergeant, then it will go back to our training unit who has a subject matter expert trainer review that typical occurrence to make sure it’s in alignment with training and policy,” said Walper.
The report is also reviewed by the expert trainer to make sure it is in accordance with what they expect them to do under the circumstances. After that it goes to the staff sergeant in charge of their training area and if there is anything out of the norm, then the report is also reviewed by the inspector in charge of that division.
“There is a lot of levels of review to make sure that we are learning from our occurrences, we are evaluating the training and the use of that in the field, as well as to identify trends and training needs moving forward,” said Walper.
The 0.6 per cent of cases where force was used in 2024 involved a total 248 subjects. There were no fatalities, no hospitalizations and most subjects – 195 of them – did not sustain any visible injuries. The remaining 53 subjects sustained minor injuries, with just over half requiring treatment on scene or at hospital before being released. In 2024, there were 21 officers who were injured – almost double from the 12 officers injured in 2023.
In 2024, 80 per cent of the cases where force was used involved subjects who were perceived as being agitated, intoxicated, suffering from mental health issues or in a state of crisis. 17 per cent had access to weapons or weapons were reported, and only three per cent were perceived to be in a ‘normal’ mental state.
All officers receive ongoing training to help them respond effectively to calls involving individuals with mental health concerns. LPS also has two Police and Crisis Teams (PACT), that pair an officer and a mental health therapist to better serve high-risk individuals and those with chronic issues.
In addition, the Service uses the HealthIM digital platform that provides officers with a pre-response safety briefing and helps support their assessment on whether a person should be transported to a designated facility for evaluation.
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There are some are still believe police come running in, tackling people to the ground or guns drawn, without any conversations. That is not the case and maybe those people have watched too many TV shows and lost reality!
Many of us have witnessed multiple police responses to incidents downtown and can attest to the fact they take extreme measures to de-escalate situations and prevent having to restrain or arrest the subjects, if it isn’t necessary.
Things have changed in training as well after the incident with the Star Wars storm trooper incident on the Northside when it was reported that someone had a gun waving it around . . . which I will state at that time there had been several robberies across North America, including Canada by people wearing similar costumes . . . but from that event, they retrained.
I have not witnessed any use of force downtown that was not justified, including two events with subjects with knifes, refusing to drop them. Both ended with no use of non-lethal or lethal use of force by police!
I have witnessed a need to restrain combative subjects that police were unable to de-escalate the situation and the subject came at the police assaulting them, but once they were restrained, police made every effort to make sure the subject was alright first, before checking on how they themselves were.
The police do not want to make arrests if it is not necessary and do not want to use force. When use of force is used, or people are restrained, they have to complete extra paperwork as well, which takes more of their time, which there never is enough of, since they often run from one incident to another . . . people say “while I see them sitting there in their car doing nothing” . . . I guarantee they are not doing nothing, but probably doing paperwork on their computers!
You never here how many times members are assaulted, whether it is police, fire or EMS, but I would suspect at least one of these first responders are assaulted everyday, during the busy seaon when there are many on the streets, which does slow down during winter!
It is a tough job and many would not be able to do it because you take a lot of abuse, and need to keep your cool! Everybody has a camera with phones today and police are always trying to perform their duties the best they can, under extreme pressures, so when you hear a good report like this, understand that they face a lot everyday, but do so without use of force for the most part. Often we see videos on TV of use of force by police in other cities, but we do not see what happened before that video.
When someone has superstrength from drugs they are on and are harming someone or themselves and police have to act, I have personally witnessed 5 well trained police attempting to restrained that person, while on the ground. They were not hitting the person in order to get them to stop fighting, but just trying to get them in restraints. If you saw just that part in the video, you might think they were over-reacting and using too much force, but every effort prior to that failed, and to prevent harm, they had to act. There is always more to the story!
This report is outstanding and shows the dedication and commitment of those who give up so much to serve our community! Always remember as well that police are human as well . . . they have to live with how they react, and they do have feelings and do not want to harm anyone. They want to make their city safer, without having to use force! But sometimes it is required!
It is a tough job!
Whatever u do don’t dress up as a storm trooper.