Revamped LPS Action Plan back in hands of Justie Minister

The Lethbridge Police Service and Lethbridge Police Commission have submitted a revamped action plan to the Minister of Justice and Solicitor General, Kaycee Madu.  The latest plan was submitted on the deadline of Friday, June 25th. 

According to the Justice Minister’s office, they have received the amended report “and look forward to reviewing it.”  In a written statement they said, “while we acknowledge the effort that Lethbridge Police has put into the plan they previously submitted, it had a number of significant and substantive deficiencies, which is why we gave them specific input on what they need to incorporate in their action plan to address issues that have been raised.”

There were a number of changes the Justice Department was looking for, including specifics on the changed culture at LPS.  In recent months Madu had some serious concerns and threatened to potentially dissolve the Lethbridge Police Service if they did not submit to him their original action plan by the end of April, which he’d hoped would addressed some of the public concerns about the police service. 

This followed a number of incidents involving LPS officers that painted the entire police service in a bad light. 

The original action plan was submitted by the April deadline, but about a month later Madu informed LPS and the police commission that the plan was not sufficient and would need to be amended by June 25. 

BCN spoke with Police Commission Chair, Rob vanSpronsen about the revamped plan they submitted last Friday, which was a 30 page document not including addendums. He says Madu’s original request did not include items that he later asked to be included in the plan. 

VanSpronsen says he doesn’t know how long it will take Madu to respond to the he