LPS Chief Shahin Mehdizadeh during a press conference in March 2022. (Image: Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

Lethbridge Police Service wants funds for 15 new officers, more civilian staff

Sep 30, 2022 | 9:02 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – The Lethbridge Police Service (LPS) made formally made a request to hire approximately 30 additional people.

LPS Chief Shahin Mehdizadeh and Lethbridge Police Commission (LPC) Chair Rob Van Spronsen made a presentation to the City of Lethbridge Economic Standing Policy Committee on Wednesday, September 28, 2022.

The committee is accepting budget requests as it begins work on preparing for next year’s budget.

The pair first asked for the $1 million that was cut from the police budget in 2021-22 be restored.

Van Spronsen explains that they were able to maintain their current service levels for front-line police officers by dipping into their reserve funds. Those funds have since been depleted.

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According to Van Spronsen, they will be forced to eliminate seven officer positions if that funding is not restored. Because the Youth Engagement Unit consists of exactly seven officers, that department would likely be impacted by potential layoffs.

The other major funding request was for an additional 15 police officers and 15.5 full-time equivalent civilian staff to be hired.

Van Spronsen says the police service has been at a “breaking point” where calls for service are rising, while civilian support staff are having to deal with more work than ever.

“It’s kind of like that fish in water. I mean, things have been added to their workload and you don’t really realize how overworked you are until you finally realize you’re exhausted at the end,” says Van Spronsen.

Mehdizadeh says the extra personnel could also help with community perceptions of safety. In the City of Lethbridge’s 2022 Community Survey, 34% of respondents said their quality of life had worsened over the last two years. The top reason for this was crime.

READ MORE: 1/3 in Lethbridge say quality of life has worsened: Survey

Committee member John Middleton-Hope, the former LPS chief from 2002-2006, says the police department in Lethbridge is understaffed compared to similarly-sized communities.

Middleton-Hope says LPS currently has 165 police officers, a number that has not increased since 2014.

If the funding requests are approved, it would bring that number up to 187. While he did not provide a source for the data, Middleton-Hope claims that if LPS followed the average police-to-population ratio in Canada, it should have closer to 212 officers.

Mehdizadeh acknowledged that their requests are not as big as he would like for them to be, but says he understands that he needs to be realistic and recognize that the City of Lethbridge has other budget pressures to deal with as well.

The police chief says the addition of civilian staff is crucially important as well.

As one example, he explains that sergeants are currently having to do an extensive amount of human resources work, which takes their attention away from their law enforcement duties.

The proposal is for LPS to hire all 15.5 civilian staff and two police officers in 2023, followed by another seven officers in 2024, and six officers in 2025.

The City of Lethbridge will spend the next couple of months in budget deliberations.

READ MORE: Lethbridge city council approves operating budget, $1M LPS cut goes through