LPS Chief earns Coronation Medal

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on January 28, 2025.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

Lethbridge Police Service Chief Shahin Mehdizadeh has been awarded the King Charles III Coronation Medal for outstanding contributions to public safety, crime prevention and community leadership.
Lethbridge-East MLA Nathan Neudorf, who nominated Mehdizadeh for the award, presented the medal Monday morning, saying the chief’s contributions have significantly affected the city in many ways.
Prior to Mehdizadeh’s arrival, said Neudorf, Lethbridge Police Service had a bad reputation not only locally, but also nationally and internationally. Thanks to the chief’s hard work and dedication, and his gentle approach, he has been able to re-shape the organization to what it is now.
“His approach has been relational to build a better community and not come in strong and really right the ship that way, but just with kindness and patience and take the time it takes to work through these significant issues,” said Neudorf.
“Before he came in, morale was low and the community was hurting. But he came in as an outsider and really worked to listen to people here and the community, earned their trust, built relationships back and brought us together as a family,” said Neudorf.
Mehdizadeh has restored kindness and patience to local policing with grace and humility, and Neudorf believes the city is better off because of it.
“Lethbridge is becoming again the thriving, healthy community that it was previously in large part due to his service,” said Neudorf.
The fact that Mehdizadeh was an “outsider” in the community had people questioning his ability to turn things around, because people wanted someone local who understood the pressures to be able to grapple with them properly.
“That was a concern,” said Neudorf. “Would somebody from the outside be able understand what Lethbridge’s DNA was? But (Mehdizadeh) came in and did it in a very gentle and kind way and it has turned out incredibly well.”
While the award was given personally to Mehdizadeh, Neudorf said he hopes the public sees it as a healing and restorative step.
“At the time, internationally there was a movement to defund the police,” Neudorf pointed out. “(Mehdizadeh) brought it back to where… it’s not a police force, it’s a police service.”
The MLA highlighted LPS walks along the community, helping members in trouble and provide safety and security. Crime is down in many areas of the city because of this, and there has been an increase of smiles and waves to LPS officers, thanks to the work Mehdizadeh has done for the organization.
“There’s still lots of work to be done,” said Neudorf, “but we are light years away from where we were before he first came.”
The chief has also helped ignite a desire for others to join the service.
“We see it all the time when we go to cadet’s graduations,” said Neudorf. “He’s there, he knows all of them by name, they know him, and they are proud to graduate and wear the uniform. He’s really worked on that, and I know there has been some classes that have been absolutely full.”
He added that for many years LPS had a hard time recruiting people, but Mehdizadeh has done a lot to rebuild the honour, respect and pride in the service and pride in the community.
Mehdizadeh said he was very humbled and honoured to receive the Coronation Medal, which is awarded to Canadians who have made a significant contribution to their community.
“The recognition is great to have, but I always have to reflect about all the people that have contributed equally and how every single one of them deserve this,” said Mehdizadeh.
That extends to all the people he has worked with throughout the years, he said, particularly his team at LPS along with their families, and Lethbridge citizens themselves.
Mehdizadeh said that when he first arrived in the job, he wanted to hear from people about the issues that had brought the organization and the community to where they were.
“I asked people what took the organization to the state that it was, and I soon realized it wasn’t the people here,” he said. “They are amazing employees, and we continue to hire amazing employees, but we had to clean up a number of things, one of them being toxic leadership and we had to deal with that.”
Mehdizadeh added that as soon as that was dealt with, he was able to see the team come together.
“Treating people like human beings, that’s what drives people and today we are not just a team, we are family. But as any other family, there is always work to be done. I would never say it’s a perfect family, but we’ve come a long way.”

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