On November 19, 2024, the Lethbridge and Southern Alberta SCAN (Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods) Unit executed their most recent closure of a property that had over 80 complaints since early 2021. The complaints mainly were drug-related activity, and in the spring of this year sheriffs issued a warning to the property owner.
“It’s [our goal] to work with property owners, work with community members, anyone we really can to help fix some of these problems” stated Inspector Mike Dirkson, the manager for the Alberta Sheriff’s SCAN Units in Lethbridge and Southern Alberta. “We don’t want to close properties. We have over 9,800 investigations, and this was our 129th closure … it’s not the norm.”
Inspector Dirkson had this to say about the goal of SCAN and how community involvement leads to the best outcomes:
November marks the one-year anniversary of the Lethbridge and Southern Alberta Unit becoming operational. The Unit is based out of Lethbridge, and they work with cases from the British Columbian border to the Saskatchewan border; including Crow’s Nest Pass, Fort McLeod, Tabor, Medicine Hat and other communities in the region.
Suspicious properties can be reported by phoning SCAN at 1-866-960-7226 or by using the online form here and complainants are completely confidential. Dirkson stated that they take confidentiality extremely seriously and aim to maintain the “trust of these communities and these neighbourhoods that we work in every day, and we hope that we continue that trust that we have with the public, because without the public’s buy-in and support and confidence, this program, it just won’t be successful.”
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