Lethbridge’s top cop says in the upcoming year, police will adapt to the province’s changes to photo radar legislation, address ongoing social disorder concerns in the community, and continue to recruit new people to the department.
Chief Shahin Mehdizadeh says the photo radar changes will cause issues for the public and he expects LPS will see an increase in the number of complaints about speeding and dangerous driving behaviour.
“As I said, that is a challenge, but we’re going to look at how we can manage it and at least do our best with the capacity that we have to keep our streets safer,” Mehdizadeh says.
Social disorder in the city will continue to be something police address in 2025; including the ongoing drug issues being seen in the community along with helping address the mental health concerns of community members. Mehdizadeh says he doesn’t believe these are concerns that will ever completely go away. Saying, that if he were to tell the community he had the silver bullet to deal with these concerns it would be a lie “because nobody has that bullet.”
“Everybody’s suffering from the same issues, but we’ve taken the approach that how do we actually manage it better, how do we show improvements in that,” he says. “Our approach is we want to give people who want to take the treatment option [a chance] we give them every opportunity to get treated, and the province has been very aggressive to provide that opportunity for any individual who wants treatment. At the same time, if they are committing crimes, it’s our job to deal with them and hold them accountable that way.”
He says LPS officers have worked to find the balance between providing support and serving the community without victimizing innocent citizens.
According to Mehdizadeh last year was one of the most productive years yet for the department since he took over as chief, saying that in the first couple of years he led the department there was a lot of cleanup that needed to be done, with COVID bringing a list of its issues and that continued over the next couple of years. Throughout 2024 the police chief says he saw a significant increase in the level of progress the department was blessed to do he believes will continue this year.
Mehdizadeh says this year he is looking forward to the official stats from 2024 to be released because throughout the year the department saw a significant reduction in crime across all categories in Lethbridge. He credits this in part to the Comm Stat model the department implemented positively working. He says this work has in a lot of ways changed the game of policing in Lethbridge, with officers and teams buying into the new method.
“Our analysts are producing amazing work, which is really keeping the officers focused on what they need to do and where they need to be and who they need to target.”
“They’re doing the work because analytics gives you a map or operational map of what you need to do. Then it’s up to the frontline officers and different teams to go and deliver on that.”
In 2024 LPS hired 26 experienced and recently graduated officers. The police chief says recruiting will continue in 2025. Mehdizadeh says this month LPS will be hiring seven to eight new officers from a new class and are also planning for a class in September.
