LPS to be only Canadian police service in ethical policing pilot project

Staff Sgt. of Support Services with LPS Christy Woods says she knows that there have been incidents in the city and elsewhere that could have been handled better by officers, so they wanted to join this program to become better.

“What it does it gives an actual platform and tool skill set in order to speak up or recognize when their fellow workers or officers are struggling with an interaction and they might need a peer intervention.”

“What this program will help us with is just to improve upon [the] reiteration of ethical policing and our officers having more confidence in how to intervene. It’s not that they don’t think they should, but sometimes we haven’t provided them the skill sets or the tools on how to do it well,” adds Woods.

Back in August, a few LPS members took part in a video conference where they learned about ABLE, as well as the connected EPIC (Ethical Policing Is Courageous) program through the New Orleans Police Department.

“What we liked about the program most is that it’s scientifically-focused and based. Basically, what the training told us is that there’s scientific evidence as to why there’s inhibitors in the workplace as to why people don’t speak up in the workplace when they see something happening.”

Woods says there are many factors as to why that might be the case, one of which could be that the officer who needs the intervention might be at a higher rank than the one who feels they should intervene.

Sometime later in October, two members of LPS will take part in the virtual training course. They will then be tasked with training the other local officers.

It will not just be active police officers who receive this training, though. Woods told LNN that it will also include all of their “civilians” such as those working in LPS administration, human resources, dispatching, and other departments.

“We have tons and tons of civilian staff who support us and work with police officers too. That’s part of this program, is breaking down those barriers for the paramilitary-type culture and everyone understanding what it looks like to not just do peer interventions themselves, but receive peer interventions themselves, so it starts to shift that cultural change that supporting one another and having their back means caring for them for their whole time that they’re working with Lethbridge Police Service and you’re willing to step up and help them out when they’re having a bad day.”

For LPS’ application to the pilot project, they received letters of support from Mayor Chris Spearman, Lethbridge College, and the Downtown Lethbridge BRZ.

“The Downtown BRZ works closely with LPS to address the needs of the business community and all downtown patrols and stakeholders,” wrote Ted Stilson, Executive Director for the Downtown Lethbridge BRZ. “We understand LPS is committed to providing [our] city with policing services that meet the public’s high expectations for integrity and professionalism. In light of current events, we know they are working hard to ensure officers receive relevant training to help them best serve all members of the city.”

Several other Canadian police services applied to take part in the pilot, so Woods hopes that, if it proves to be successful, they will be able to take in this training as well.

by David Opinko

LPS to be only Canadian police service in ethical policing pilot project

What's Happening