LPS Chief planning to hold town hall meetings next year

Mehdizadeh believes it is important to be able to meet with the residents that his organization serves.

“As a chief of police, I’m not just coming here and hiding myself in the office and basically going home at the end of the day. Every time I have a meeting downtown, most likely, I’m walking to my meeting just [because] I want to visit some businesses.”

Throughout the pandemic, he had held a few town hall meetings over Zoom, but would like to start doing them in person starting in 2022, assuming COVID-19 restrictions allow it.

“I did some kind of virtual town halls – I did a series of them. I was never really a big fan of them but I thought it was better than doing nothing at all, at least reaching out to citizens who choose to come on that venue and listen.”

Mehdizadeh told LNN that he sees the posts on social media about people not being happy with LPS, but in the online format, he is not always able to get the necessary feedback on what specifically they are unhappy with nor how those issues could be resolved.

He calls himself, “maybe an old-timer” in that he would prefer to speak to people face-to-face.

“I truly want to do town halls in different parts of the city – west, south, north, downtown.”

After more than 30 years in law enforcement, he was sworn in as the city’s new police chief in August 2020, settling down in Lethbridge for the first time.

by David Opinko

LPS Chief planning to hold town hall meetings next year

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