Lethbridge ranked number three on Crime Severity Index

The rankings are out for the Crime Severity Index, and the city of Lethbridge now sits at number three. We have seen a 16 per cent decrease over the last couple of years. Back in 2021, Lethbridge was ranked number one. Officials with the city and Lethbridge Police say the downward trend is encouraging news for our community. They say the decrease is something to celebrate.  

“You’re doing a lot of stuff from the intellect, policing different enforcement efforts to help drive crime down. But the number one reason that crime will go down, and I’m hoping it’s going to continue that trend is our citizens engagement in reducing the opportunity crime for the criminals so they can’t do it as freely. So as we work with our community, who are our number one partners in this battle to reduce crime,” said Chief Shahin Mehdizadeh, Lethbridge Police Service. 

“Lots of work to do. Absolutely. A lot of work to do. But I’ll share what the chief said, that Lethbridge is a safe community and it’s proven with the different stats. We’d heard a couple of weeks ago another report that was done, that it’s one of the safest communities in Canada. And again, is there more that we can do. Absolutely. We need to celebrate those wins. When we have something that comes in and stats that we’re the safest community in Canada, we need to be proud of that. And again, I’m just a broken record, but there’s so much more we can do. But let’s celebrate those wins for sure,” said Blaine Hyggen, Mayor of Lethbridge.

Chief Shahin Mehdizadeh says most of the crime they are seeing right now are crimes of opportunity.