Downtown residents frustrated with crime and lack of progress

Editor’s note: This is the first article in a three-part series.

As alarms are blaring, vehicles are broken into and human feces litter the streets, the situation in downtown Lethbridge is deteriorating, according to some residents.

Barry Ewing lives in a condo downtown and says residents are tired of the current situation facing their community.

“We’re all tired of this. We’re all tired of the alarms from businesses, who are just trying to protect their staff and property, going off all day and all night,” said Ewing.

“We’ve had the piles of feces, the urine constantly happening at our back doors or our front doors. The loitering, the threats, we all have to deal with it.”

Providing a copy of a presentation he made at City Hall, Ewing says many businesses downtown have resorted to motion sensor alarms, but the only effect is annoyed residents.

“These alarms destroy the peaceful enjoyment of the dwellings of over 500 residents who live in the area, within the alarms’ range.”

He indicates in the document that this is primarily a problem because the alarms do not do anything to prevent crime as a tangible deterrent. In fact, he says a building downtown has even become a base of operations for criminals during the night, despite the alarms blaring.

“These alarms do not work long-term and now the addicts have become embedded and will be much harder to remove long-term, with the hookers using it as their base and (random men) driving up in the alley and picking them up.”

However, Ewing says his concern with a loud alarm is simply a small piece in the greater puzzle damaging downtown Lethbridge.

“(When) a 70-year-old man has to go out and move people away from doing damage to a business, that’s wrong,” said Ewing. “When you go to the post office to check your mail and get assaulted for asking somebody (who is actively urinating on the sidewalk) to go use the washroom across the alley, that’s wrong.”

Furthermore, Ewing says crimes occur in broad daylight and are often inhibitive of his, and other residents’, ability to walk safely downtown.

In a video shown to the Lethbridge Herald, Ewing was attempting to walk through Galt Gardens during the daytime when he was confronted for having his phone out. A woman is heard saying “Put your (expletive) camera down,” before approaching him, though the situation did not escalate beyond the exchange of words.

“I’m angry, I’ve had enough at that point and I have every right to walk through there,” said Ewing. “I could walk right up and take a picture of them, I have a right, they’re in a public place.”

He says Lethbridge city council members, such as councillor John Middleton-Hope and mayor Blaine Hyggen, as well as Lethbridge Police Service officers are working diligently to stop the problems downtown, but he says the situation is considerably less complex than it is made out to be.

“It’s pretty simple, enforce the laws.”

However, he says the laws are not being enforced due to a variety of factors. In fact, he claims there were multiple occasions when he was witnessing crimes in progress, called the police non-emergency line and was told to fill out an online form while no officers were ever dispatched.

“I got angry with (the dispatcher). I got upset. I said ‘well, what do you mean? I’m talking to you on the phone, this is an active crime happening.’”

A spokesperson for the Lethbridge Police Service,issued a statement to the Lethbridge Herald saying LPS officers do enforce the laws, but things aren’t as black and white as a simple piece of legislation may suggest.

“Police enforce municipal, provincial and federal legislation every day. But the reality is, until the root causes of crime and disorder are addressed, simply issuing bylaw tickets and even arresting and charging individuals, is unlikely, in most cases, to change behaviours or provide a long-term solution. A collaborative approach is necessary to address the underlying issues that result in negative behaviours and crime.”

Meanwhile, Middleton-Hope says the low number of police recruits in previous years has been a partial cause for why downtown crime is “very much alive and well”, saying this type of problem is not exclusive to policing.

“If we don’t have enough firefighters and paramedics to respond to fires downtown or overdoses downtown, we’re going to experience the same kinds of problems,” said Middleton-Hope.

Indeed, he says the problems go beyond Lethbridge’s jurisdiction as well, plaguing every city in the nation.

“You go to Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, the Lower Mainland, Victoria, they’re all dealing with the similar types of problems.”

On the flip side, during a recent Standing Policy Committee meeting, LPS said they have increased their service by 18 officers over the past two years with more expected before 2024 is over. This number is in terms of net gain, not total officers hired.

Middleton-Hope says this is good progress and he hopes it continues to move along this trend.

“Keep hiring, don’t stop,” said Middleton-Hope.

He says this is chiefly important because there is a lot more to keeping numbers than just hiring new officers.

“It’s managing the retention, which is members resigning, members retiring. That happens and it happens in a huge number.”

During the same period as the new hires, just nine officers left the LPS through resignation or retirement, indicating a strong pattern of growth.

Justin Sibbet, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Lethbridge Herald