Alberta government threatens to dissolve Lethbridge police force unless chief shows reform plan in weeks
The force has been the subject of recent scandals, several of which involve NDP MLA Shannon Phillips
Alberta's justice minister has given the police chief in Lethbridge a three-week deadline to produce a plan to shape up the force or see it be dissolved under an "extraordinary" step by the government, according to letters exclusively obtained by CBC News.
Justice Minister Kaycee Madu's letters to Chief Shahin Mehdizadeh, Lethbridge's mayor and the city's police commission chair follow recent complaints about the service including that six employees allegedly used police databases to do unauthorized searches of a cabinet minister's personal information on police databases.
Two Lethbridge Police Service (LPS) officers have already been disciplined for photographing and following Lethbridge-West NDP MLA Shannon Phillips while she was environment minister under the previous NDP government, which was ousted by the United Conservative Party in 2019. Both officers were involved in the off-roading community, whose members were upset by the province's plans to restrict off-road vehicle use and create a provincial park in the environmentally sensitive Castle area of southwestern Alberta.
And CBC News broke the story earlier this month that five officers had recently been suspended after they were allegedly involved in creating and disseminating what have been described by sources as "toxic" memes targeting senior brass and Phillips.
Police given April 16 deadline for plan
In the letters, Madu reiterates his "significant concerns" about the effectiveness of the LPS and citizens' confidence in the service.
The minister has given the chief an April 16 deadline for a detailed plan to address issues of recruiting, training, oversight, discipline, transparency and communications.
"Should I not see a plan for addressing the acknowledged issues, or should I not see evidence of progress in relation to acting upon that plan, I will be in a position of having to truly consider utilizing the extraordinary authorities available to me under section 30 of the Police Act," wrote Madu.
Under that section of the act, if the minister feels a municipality is not providing adequate and effective policing, he has the power to bring in another police service, dissolving the current force.
WATCH | Alberta's justice minister on what he wants from Lethbridge police:
The communications from the minister follow an in-person meeting between Madu, Mehdizadeh and Lethbridge Police Commission (LPC) chair Robert Van Spronsen two weeks ago.
Madu has requested a well-defined plan including steps to monitor progress.
Although the minister questioned the ability of the force to deliver adequate and effective policing to the citizens of Lethbridge, he did acknowledge that Mehdizadeh shared those concerns and committed to "enacting significant changes" during their meeting.
Notley calls minister's approach 'reasonable'
In addressing the letters outside the legislature Wednesday afternoon, Madu said the issues at LPS have been going on "for quite some time."
"I do not want a few bad eggs to taint an entire institution that's meant to keep and protect all of us," the minister told reporters.
WATCH | Rachel Notley responds to justice minister's deadline:
NDP leader Rachel Notley said she feels Madu is taking a "reasonable approach" in his effort to reinstate public trust in LPS.
"We need to make darn sure that this kind of thing never happens again," said Notley.
"We cannot, under any circumstances, be in a position where law enforcement are able to bully or intimidate democratically elected representatives because they don't agree with decisions that they're taking."
LPS committed to 'correcting past behaviours'
In a written statement released Wednesday afternoon, LPS said it plans to provide the plan "much earlier" than the April 16 deadline.
LPS says the service has been developing an action plan over the last several months to address the problems raised by the "troubling" cases.
"We are confident that the service is on the right path to correcting past behaviours and restoring public trust," reads the written statement.
"An underlying common theme will be to ensure consistent accountability and a consistently high standard of integrity in our service delivery."
LPS controversies
Earlier this year, Phillips won the right to appeal the discipline and seek a more severe outcome for the two officers — Const. Keon Woronuk and Sgt. Jason Carrier — who were temporarily demoted for spying on Phillips while on duty in 2017.
Alberta's Law Enforcement Review Board ruled that the police chief's process "lacked procedural fairness" and was "tainted and flawed, and lacked transparency."
In recent weeks, Woronuk was suspended alongside four others as part of an investigation into the circulation of inappropriate, "toxic" images, according to sources.
The chief has said a disciplinary hearing will take place in the coming weeks for those five officers.
In another Phillips-related scandal, documents showed an LPS civilian employee and five officers — including a deputy chief and a staff sergeant — accessed personal information on the NDP MLA when she was environment minister, yet no investigative purpose was given for any of the searches.
The force also came under recent scrutiny when CBC News reported that a retired LPS inspector, who was head of a victims advocacy group, had a sexual relationship with a client — a domestic violence survivor — who said their relationship was not consensual.
When the woman went to the Lethbridge Police Service to complain, the man's friends and former colleagues were initially assigned to investigate him — with the woman saying they were dismissive and that she worried about potential conflict of interest.
Two days after CBC News contacted Lethbridge police to inquire about the perceived conflict, the service handed the case over to the RCMP. Mehdizadeh says the service made the change before being contacted.
Meghan Grant is the courts and crime reporter for CBC Calgary. If you have a good story idea or tip, you can reach her at meghan.grant@cbc.ca or on Twitter at @CBCMeg. You can read more of her recent stories here:
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