LPS acting police chief Scott Woods (Lethbridge News Now)

By Justin Goulet

Acting Police Chief says newer programs a good thing for the LPS

Jan 6, 2020 | 7:13 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – The Community Peace Officers have been on the streets of Lethbridge for less than six months, but Lethbridge Police Service’s Acting Chief says they’re making an impact.

The CPOs were one of the programs Scott Woods brought up when speaking with Lethbridge News Now, sharing his thoughts on the last year and what’s in store for the LPS in 2020.

READ MORE: LPS Acting Chief displays optimism for the new year (INSERT LINK)

“The premise of that program [CPOs] when we got that out was to try and reduce some of the calls for service that our regular police officers are dealing with,” he said.

“[Those calls] tend to be lower level calls that we can at times spend a lot of time on, and try to divert some of that stuff away from police officers to the Community Peace Officers [so] as police, we can try to spend our time on other things.”

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Woods noted that the CPOs have increased the foot patrol presence in the downtown core of Lethbridge and serve as a conduit to the police for that area.

Another program that’s newer to the force in recent years is the Police and Crisis Team (PACT). Woods said mental health calls are something on the rise for the LPS.

“Debate continues whether we should be dealing with those or other entities within the community. The reality is when people aren’t really sure who to call and don’t have anybody else to call, they call the police,” he said.

“So, that program (PACT) where we have an officer and an Alberta Health Services worker working together in tandem to try and deal with some of those calls we’re dealing with.”

He said the end result of that is to try and help people get the services they need and to reduce some of the calls police officers respond to.

The Watch program launched in 2019. The program was developed to help deal with the drug crisis in downtown Lethbridge, but also to help citizens on the streets with any problems they’re facing.

READ MORE: The Watch hits the streets in downtown Lethbridge

“The police service has changed a fair amount obviously, over the last year, with the introduction of those programs and again, they’re all new and we’re going to continue to evaluate their effectiveness and look at ways to try and improve them as well as we move forward on that,” Woods said.

“The big thing is the city is changing. We’re now north of 100,000 in population and the city’s continuing to grow and we’re starting to see more and more things within our community that were always a little bit more specific or unique to larger cities that we’re starting to see in Lethbridge.”

He said as the city grows, new programs and initiatives will help the LPS grow as well.