Construction at the Lethbridge Regional Police Service (LRPS) is currently underway. Due to ever increasing populations, the current LRPS facility is no longer large enough.

  Much of Southern Alberta consists of many communities too small to warrant having a police service of their own. Therefore, smaller communities in the region rely on the LRPS to handle their law enforcement.

 Almost 20 years ago when the LRPS was first built, the regions population was much smaller. Officials say the current facility size was more than adequate at the time, due to the demands for services also being smaller.

 However, since 1995 the City of Lethbridge has increased in population by nearly 20 thousand, according to city censuses. Lethbridge Facility Project Manager Barry McCullum says that the construction is necessary to keep pace with a growing population.

 “The existing building right now has reached capacity. There are a large number of volunteers as well as officers in the building, and they need to maintain their level of service,” says McCallum.

 Officials at the LRPS say that much of the current staff will be temporarily moved out of the station during construction only administrative stuff as well as the Patrol Operations Division will remain in the station.

 In the meantime, residents may find it inconvenient to not have all services in the same building, but Inspector of Patrol Operations Tom Ascroft says the new services that will be offered in the future will make up for the dispersion.

“In terms of training, we’ll be able to move a lot of our training activities into the same building,” says Ascroft.

Access to the police station will remain open for walk-in complaints and crime reports, as well as applications for criminal record checks and pardons during construction. The construction is expected to be completed in 2017.