Lethbridge’s top cop says there is not just one or two things that has led to a reduction of crime in the city last year.
Lethbridge Police Chief Shahin Mehdizadeh says over the past few years the department has put a lot of work into looking at the causation of crime and what resources need to be sent out to tackle these issues. He explains police have been paying a lot of attention to where resources need to be sent and “the more prolific offenders in the city” need to be targeted.
“That comes from the great work that our analytical unit has been doing and the way they’ve been built up to actually provide the police with more meaningful analytical information so we can make that into an operational initiative so we can tackle crime,” Mehdizadeh says. “I think that’s the next significant thing that’s happening in this department is significant teamwork and engagement by the frontline officers to actually buy into that program and invest their time and energy on where they need to be and on targeting the people that they need to target.”
He explains this work is done by doing checks on these individuals to make sure they are following any conditions that allow them to be out of incarceration, whether that is a curfew, areas they are not allowed to be in or go to, or even people they are not allowed to contact.
“If they are in violation of those conditions, we hold them accountable. That itself has translated into, if you look at the graphs, the more checks we do, the less crime happens.”
READ MORE: Lethbridge Police Service reports significant reduction in crime in 2024
According to the police chief, being able to share the fact there has been a decline in crime in the city is an accomplishment because it was not that long ago Lethbridge was number one on the CSI list and did not have the best reputation when it came to crime. He says seeing the numbers go down is evidence to the officers that the work they are doing can help reduce calls for service, crimes and people who are victimized in the city.
“So we actually have some really evidence-based approach in doing police work, which has made the difference and has gotten buy-in from the frontline officers who are actually doing the work every day.”
“I truly believe that even though we still have opportunity crimes, they are actually reducing and that certainly is a hats off to all the citizens who are being more vigilant with their properties as far as valuables in vehicles, locking their doors, locking their vehicles, not leaving them running.”
Mehdizadeh adds how the community perceives this information is also important, because if the crime goes down but the perception of safety in the city doesn’t then that is an issue because he says it is important people feel safe in their community. He reports there has been an improvement in this perception according to the results of the last community survey, where 70 per cent of people who took the survey said they feel safe in the city, up from the previous 65 per cent.
Recently the Fraser Institute released a report with statistics from 2019, which put the city in one of the higher spots for crime rate in the country and according to the Mehdizadeh all that can be done in response to those sorts of reports is keep “communicating the progress we’re making to the public and people who are not in our community and from outside organizations who decide to put those out.”
“I have no control over that. All we can do is push out the news that we have, good, but bad or ugly. It’s not that if the crime was going up, we would say this, we’d still be standing here talking about [how] crime has gone up,” he says. “We have to be very transparent with the public.”
He hopes by being open with this information it can help change the perceptions of people who are not in the city.
