Even though the Fraser Institute recently released its report, “Comparing Recent Crime Trends in Canada and the U.S.: Urban Areas,” Lethbridge Police Chief Shahin Mehdizadeh says the information in the report is “very dated” and “not the story today.”
“The report removes a lot of crime categories to make comparisons between Canada and the U.S., which could make comparisons between Canadian cities inaccurate and not the best source of information,” he notes.
According to the police chief, the best source of Canadian comparisons would come from Stats Canada.
In 2023, Lethbridge ranked sixth in Crime Severity Index (CSI) for violent crime, says Mehdizadeh. “We expect a 10 per cent decrease for 2024 from those numbers.”
In 2023, he adds, Lethbridge ranked second for non-violent crime, “which would include property crimes, but an expected 20 per cent decrease for 2024.”
“The trend since 2020 has been on a downward trend, which is what we’re dealing with currently. The report talks about 2019 to 2022,” Mehdizadeh explains.
Mehdizadeh says property crime has significantly decreased in Lethbridge since 2019, in counts and in severity. “2024 saw a significant decrease in violent and property crime.”
Crime is not just a Lethbridge-specific problem, he adds. “We do have crime here and we do have crime in other cities. Of the top 10 municipalities for total CSI with a population of over 100,000, nine are in Western Canada. That’s a sad reality.”
“For violent crime CSI, seven out of 10 cities are in Western Canada.”
The issue with property crime in Lethbridge, Mehdizadeh says, largely stems from the drug crisis. “When you look at the numbers they specify, which is 2019, it was close to the time when we had the consumption site opening here and that certainly drove crime up in Lethbridge for a while, but we’ve been continuing to reduce that.”
Drug crisis property crimes are opportunistic in nature, he notes. Lethbridge residents can help reduce those types of crimes by locking cars and homes.
“We have a dedicated property crime unit who investigates offences and conducts targeted enforcement projects based on the analytics we have. We’ve come a long way from 2019 to 2024 in use of analytics and our COMSTAT model with more targeted enforcement and projects we have to serve the community,” says Mehdizadeh.
