Medicine Hat police chief says it’s been an excellent, but busy year

“It’s a good benefit to the police service and the community. Raj brings experience. He had 23 years in Brantford, Ont. He had three years as a deputy chief in Nelson, B.C. He brings lots of different experience, which is good. And it never hurts when you have some outside experience and someone that sees things a different way,” he added.

“I think he’s brought a really good element to the community and the police service, which I think is excellent.”

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READ: Medicine Hat police hires new deputy chief (Nov. 21, 2024)

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Murphy said the deputy chief helps oversee the inspectors who run the operations of the police service, investigations and support service.

“It’s a good thing to have an extra set of eyes. And we had a structure with a deputy chief here in Medicine Hat in our history,” Murphy said.

“But the last 12 years, we hadn’t had that, probably a little more than that. So it’s great to have that structure back. And it’s a structure I worked in when I was with the Edmonton Police. And I think it works very well to have that extra rank there,” he added.

“It’s been really good in the past 12 months we’ve had Deputy Saini here.”

Police Chief Murphy also had a contract renewal signed in 2025.

The chief has been with the Medicine Hat Police Service since Oct. 12, 2022, when he started in an interim role, before being sworn in in January 2023.

“I’ve been here over three years now and am really happy with the way the first three years have went. Not without its challenges, but all jobs have challenges, which is kind of what makes it interesting and fun, I guess, in a lot of ways,” Murphy said.

“But really excited to have a renewed contract until the end of 2031, and it lets us continue to work on things here and make it better for the community and for the police service,” he added.

“I just think it’s a positive thing all around to have that consistency for the long term. And I think it lets us keep building on what we’ve been building, which is great.”

Another highlight of the past year, the police chief said, was additional support for schools.

“Last year, in the budget process that was just over a year ago, City Council approved us for a new school resource officer to be shared between the Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education and the Public Board. And that has been excellent. So that resource has been shared between the two boards,” Murphy said.

“I think that’s very positive. Anytime we have an extra police officer out in the schools, which is great.”

Two new positions had also been approved for the downtown patrol unit, bringing that group up to five members, which Murphy said is excellent.

“There was a sergeant and two constables previously. So now we have the sergeant and four constables. It lets us have more coverage over more days and more hours on those days,” Murphy said.

“Our downtown patrol folks were out on mountain bikes this summer, which made them more efficient and get around downtown a little faster. So that was great. And I think we saw a difference,” he added.

“We still have a way to go. There’s more work to do, but I think we saw a big improvement this year, and we need to continue to build on that.”

Support from the City Council came with approval of training, equipment, and new firearms.

“That’s the new sidearms our members carry and our new carbine rifles. The training on the new pistols, just about everybody’s trained up. And that is a big improvement for the police service and for public safety in our community,” Murphy said.

“Really pleased with that and just thankful that Council had the foresight to make those approvals.”

Chief Murphy said that the downtown patrol unit tends to deal with crime related to social disorder.

“Unfortunately, the vulnerable folks in our community that are suffering from mental health and addiction. We’re there to help them, but we’re there to enforce the laws as they’re on the books as well. So there’s a bit of both going on at the same time,” Murphy said.

“I think the guys and gals that work downtown have done a great job this year of dealing with the issues. We can always get better, and we will, but I think we had a very good year at it in 2025, much improved over previous years.”

Murphy said that they will try to get vulnerable individuals to access services.

“Not everybody can make the decision. They can’t make the decision to get themselves into treatment and get into a better life. So our guys and gals, we try to get them to that,” Murphy said.

“But some folks, unfortunately, if they’re going to commit crimes, we’re going to deal with that. And we do, we still do enforcement, but we’re trying to get people help at the same time. So it’s a difficult balance to maintain, but we’re trying to balance support with enforcement, and it is tough, there’s no question.”

The police chief said one of the biggest challenges is how busy they are.

“Our calls for service have been increasing year over year. And bylaw calls are also increasing quite a bit. So that makes it challenging to respond to everything,” Murphy said.

“You still have to train. Our members need time off and vacation. So it makes us very busy throughout the year.”

The PEACE team, proactive engagement and community enhancement, is another initiative the police service worked on this year, and included bylaw services, Medicine Hat Fire and Emergency Service, community housing, the Miywasin Centre, and Alberta Health Services.

“We’re all involved. We deal with people that are kind of living in encampments throughout our city, like living in tents, mostly around the river valley and wooded areas,” Murphy said.

“We’re just trying to get them out of that way of living because it’s unsafe and try to get them some either treatment or health care, whatever they need,” he added.

“The PEACE team has had a very good year doing that. And in the new year, they’ll make a presentation to the police commission on it about some of their numbers from this year. So they’ve worked very hard.”

Training for the Medicine Hat Police Service has also shifted to Medicine Hat College, after previously working with Lethbridge Polytechnic.

“That partnership has been amazing for both sides, and so thankful for it. Thankful to the president of the college, Kevin Shufflebotham, for his willingness and openness to work with us on that program,” Murphy said.

“It’s been outstanding. The second class is training right now, that has 10 officers in it. It has seven that are for the Medicine Hat Police Service, two for the Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway Police, and one for Blood Tribe Police,” he added.

“They will graduate the classroom portion in March, and then they’ll hit the street from there to continue their training.”

The Medicine Hat Police Service is actively recruiting, with the process closing on March 31, 2026. The next class of recruits will start at Medicine Hat College in September 2025.

The police chief said that when they are recruiting, ideal candidates are already in Medicine Hat.

“It’s great when you can have locals from your own community join the local police service. We’re looking for people that obviously have a high level of fitness, and they’re engaged in their community,” Murphy said.

“A lot of community participation and engagement already in their lives, and they want to continue that in their career. They have a high moral character and just a work ethic, because policing and law enforcement is not an easy career,” he added.

“All careers bring challenges, but we just want people that are of the right fit for us that can help us maintain public safety in this community.”

The Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education has also teamed up with police and fire to offer its students the First Responder Academy.

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READ: First responders academy coming to Monsignor McCoy High School in Medicine Hat (Jan. 27, 2025)

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“That’s an initiative that they came up with, the school board did, and asked us if we would be part of that. And we were fully engaged, and we were excited to do it,” Murphy said.

“There’s a lot of exciting programs going on in our community. It speaks to the willingness of this community to get engaged. It’s amazing.”

Murphy also took over as as president of the Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police in May 2025 for a two-year term.

“I don’t make decisions for the other chiefs around the province, but we work together to hopefully gain consensus on the issues, and we can be united about what we want to do about the issues that we have, and we can support each other,” Murphy said.

“I think it helps me as a chief here in Medicine Hat because we have great conversations with the Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police, and I think it opens my mind up to other possibilities, and I think it’s always good any time that you have different opinions and you can listen to each other and get to good outcomes,” he added.

“I do quite enjoy my time as the president of the AACP. I look forward to continuing my time for my two-year term, but it’s a lot of work, but it’s exciting at the same time, and I think there’s some amazing things going on with law enforcement in our province and I’m very proud of it.”

Holiday check stops are taking place through December in the city, and there has been steady traffic through them.

“The last two weekends we’ve done it, so we’ve had nights where a couple of hundred vehicles would be checked, and there were no impaired drivers, which is fantastic news, which is what we want to see,” Murphy said.

“Then we had another night this weekend where we checked several hundred vehicles and there were several impaired drivers,” he added.

“The message that’s out to the community is that we’re out there throughout the holidays and we encourage people not to drive after drinking, to find other modes of transportation, they call people for a ride, a family member or ride share programs, taxis, whichever, but it’s unfortunately there is still some impaired driving going on out there.”

Murphy said he encourage the community to be safe at Christmas.

“No one wants to be involved in a collision where someone is killed or injured at any time of year, let alone the holidays, and I just want everybody to have a safe and Merry Christmas, because we just don’t need that in our community.”

Murphy said he is also proud of the work the ALERT team has done in the community.

“That’s our partnership with us and the RCMP and all the police you see in the province, and it stands for Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams; they’ve had some great success this year,” Murphy said.

“They work on files with drugs and guns and organized crime throughout our province, and we have a team based here in Medicine Hat, and they’ve had some great success throughout this year in getting some large amounts of drugs and firearms off our streets,” he added.

“We’re proud of the work they’re doing and they continue to do, so glad that’s going on because that’s an important piece of what we’re doing.”

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Police Chief Alan Murphy. File Photo/CHAT News

If you get to know Police Chief Murphy a little, you will find out that he is a big fan of the NFL’s Chicago Bears.

A team that hasn’t won the Super Bowl since 1985, but has already secured a playoff berth this year.

“I am a Bears fan, there’s no doubt about it, and they haven’t won the Super Bowl for a long time, and it’s very exciting that they’ve made the playoffs again for the first time since 2020,” Murphy said.

“But I’m also very reserved about that, because you never know, because the NFL is difficult, but it’s an exciting time for me to be a Bears fan, because they’re in a good position right now.”

A place you might spot the police chief is during one of his daily runs.

“I run every day, generally at lunchtime, if I have the time at lunch, if I’m not in a meeting, but I run at some point in my day every day, I go for a run around town, and it’s one thing I do just to keep my fitness levels up,” Murphy said.

“I just like to get out and run and clear my head, and it’s just nice this community, the weather here is so good, there’s trails everywhere, and it’s just such a great place,” he added.

“Since I’ve been here, I’ve been very consistent about being out for a run every day, and I think many people do see me out there doing that, and I do it because of the weather, and it’s a beautiful community, and I just love it.”

by Jesse Gill

Medicine Hat police chief says it’s been an excellent, but busy year

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