Commision asks LPS to examine concerns over ‘Wanted Wednesday’ posts
By Tim Kalinowski on May 28, 2021.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDtkalinowski@lethbridgeherald.com The Lethbridge Police Commission is instructing the Lethbridge Police Service to examine the concerns of citizens after a petition to ban ‘Wanted Wednesday’ posts signed by 545 petitioners was formally presented to commissioners during this week’s public meeting.Chief of Police Shahin Mehdizadeh addressed the petition, and acknowledged the concerns expressed by those signing the petition about the sometimes racist or demeaning comments posted by members of the public who view the posts.
“The racism is totally inappropriate, but unfortunately even in the year 2021 (there are those) who take liberty at making those comments, and putting them out on social media,” Mehdizadeh told The Herald. “It’s very inappropriate. I wish there were laws around that so we could stop it, but unfortunately we don’t. From my perspective, any time individuals like that have come out on social media, those comments, many of our good citizens actually have come to shame them. Or at least stop that behaviour by making their own comments about the fact this is not appropriate.
“If you take Wanted Wednesdays out of social media, I can guarantee all those racist people are still going to be finding other venues to make those comments. I don’t believe the racist comments are as a result of Wanted Wednesdays. These individuals live to put those comments out through whatever venue, and I don’t believe we need to stop what we (at LPS) are doing just because they are behaving in that way.”
Mehdizadeh also confirmed the LPS did monitor the comments and does remove the most offensive ones when they see them.
But to both the commissioners and The Herald Mehdizadeh defended the usefulness of the program in engaging the public in finding individuals who have been charged with committing serious crimes.
“We are not putting the names of people who owe the government $50, or a fine, or whatever,” he said. “These are people who are a risk to the community, and we want our citizens to know where they are, and we can get some control on apprehending them and making sure they do not victimize more citizens.”
The petition was created by Lethbridge resident Paul Butler, who disagreed with Mehdizadeh’s categorization of the types of individuals featured in Wanted Wednesday when he spoke to the newspaper earlier this year.
“Some of the people are clearly no danger to society,” Butler said at the time. “They are extremely vulnerable, and I would actually be a little bit worried about the effect of having their pictures publicly circulated, so people can make horrible comments about them, would have on their lives which are already somewhat challenged. I really just think there is a lack of compassion, a lack of understanding, a lack of empathy.”
Butler went on to describe the Wanted Wednesday posts as being the “antithesis of community policing.”
Commissioner Belinda Crowson felt that the posts might indeed fulfill a valuable policing purpose, but also agreed with Butler’s and other petitioners’ comments about racist or demeaning comments appearing under the posts.
“One of the concerns I have heard expressed is not even so much the Wanted Wednesday as it is the comments that come on it from other people,” she said. “It sort of becomes an avenue for some people to attack, to have racist comments, etc. Those are the concerns I have had a lot. If it is going to be used selectively, is there an opportunity to shut off the comments and have an email or some other way you would get comments back from the public? Rather than being right on the post?”
“My commitment is if there is a way for us to get the info, and shut down those comments, and still get the same value from it– certainly we will look into it,” Mehdizadeh said, before reminding commissioners that it is a common problem of social media in every realm of public discourse.
Newly appointed Commissioner Doug Thornton said regardless if this is true, he wanted more information on what the LPS is doing to deal with these specific concerns about Wanted Wednesdays.
“I have only heard media reports on this subject, and I must say my initial reaction was not particularly good,” he stated. “The Chief has explained it is an important part of enforcing the laws, but I would like to consider moving this topic and having further discussion at our meeting of June 30.”
Commission chair Robert van Spronsen concurred.
“I, for one, would like to have more information about the statistics in terms of how useful is it? Is it really doing what you think you are doing? Because I think the concerns I heard expressed are valid concerns. But if it is that valuable, let’s talk about it.”
Mehdizadeh said later the LPS was always open to thinking about better ways of doing things, and the Wanted Wednesday feature was no exception.
“We are always open to modifying things to better meet the needs of the community,” he confirmed. “This is certainly a concern of 500 plus citizens in this community; so we want to make sure moving forward we are still tweaking things to address their concerns. But at the same time being able to operationally do our job to keep this community safe.” Follow @TimKalHerald on Twitter 4
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