Progressive Policing With Chief Murphy

Medicine Hat Police Service is having their annual Open House on Saturday, June 13 from 11AM to 3 PM at MHPS headquarters. Admission is free. The open house includes Building Tours, specialty Unit Displays, Special Guests, a Community BBQ and Chief Gord Earl Leadership Legacy Scholarships Awards. Today on Bring Back The Porch we speak with Police Chief Alan Murphy about the Open House as well as the annual police report for 2025.

Key topics
2025 police year-end report
Community partnerships and youth programs
Crime trends and statistics
Progressive policing and technology adoption
Future plans and community engagement

Chapters
00:00 Introduction
03:02 Community Partnerships and Training Initiatives
05:58 Downtown Patrol and Community Engagement
08:52 Firearms Transition and Safety Concerns
12:11 Progressive Policing and Technology Adoption
14:56 Crime Statistics and Community Challenges
17:59 Traffic Safety and Enforcement Efforts
21:07 Fraud and Public Awareness
24:04 Drug Seizures and Organized Crime
26:59 Organizational Wellness and Support Programs
29:06 Looking Ahead: Future Goals and Community Relations

Discover key insights from the Medicine Hat Police Service's 2025 year-end report, highlighting community partnerships, recruitment efforts, and progressive policing
strategies.Today on Bring Back The Porch, we dive into the recent 2025 year-end report from the Medicine Hat Police Service, where the Chief of Police shares vital insights about the current state of policing in the community. From recruitment to partnerships with educational institutions, this report sheds light on the effective strategies that are shaping the future of public
safety.

Engaging the youth helps in building a foundation of informed citizens who understand the challenges and responsibilities of first responders. This initiative not only creates potential future recruits but also fosters a sense of respect and awareness within the community. The police service is actively recruiting to ensure a steady influx of new ideas and energy, which is essential for adapting to the evolving challenges in law enforcement.

The report highlights the expansion of units focused on social issues, such as the downtown patrol unit aimed at addressing social disorder in the community. The addition of more officers to this unit has proven beneficial in engaging with local businesses and the unhoused population.

Progressive policing is a key aspect noted in the report, with the Medicine Hat Police Service adopting modern technologies and practices. The recent transition to newer firearms and the exploration of drone usage for policing are examples of this forward-thinking approach.

The 2025 year-end report from the Medicine Hat Police Service highlights significant strides in community engagement, recruitment, and progressive policing strategies. These insights not only paint a picture of the current state of policing but also set the stage for future developments in public safety.

Resources

Medicine Hat Police Service Annual Report 2025 - https://mhps.ca/uploads/files/Police_AR_2025_Final_Digital_New.pdf

First Responders Academy at Monsignor McCoy - https://www.mccoyhighschool.ca/programs/first-responder-academy

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Transcript

0:00

Hey, this is Brian again, and I'd like to ask you to do a favor. We can't do this work without people like you. So if you can, please like, share, subscribe, tell your friends about bring back the porch. about probably 45% or so of our members are between their brand new members to about nine years, and we have percentage that's very senior and experienced then coming upon retirement in the next few years. So I think it's a good mix of experience with young people. So new ideas, people that a lot of experience that know how to do the job. So I like our current mix of what we have, and it's always exciting when you have a recruit class in the building, they bring new ideas and it gets a lot of energy in the building, which is exciting. This episode of bring back the porch. Brought to you by Bernie Leahy, River Street Realty. Let's get you home. As much as I would like to spend the next 30 to 40 minutes talking with my friend Al Murphy about our beloved Chicago Bears, we have other matters to talk about today. The Chief of police from the police service is with us, and you have just completed and I guess released the 2025 year end report. We have Brian, thanks very much, and thanks for having me here today. Really appreciate it. What stuck out in your mind is the highlight as you look back in the rearview mirror. I would say other other than issues are on crime. I would say it was a great year of partnerships for us in town and outside of medicine, but especially with Medicine Hat College, with our training partnership with them and the First Responders Academy with the Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education, that really stood out to me. And those were important community partnerships to build for the future. And that was that really stood out. Yeah, I had them at the top of my list here, too. So great minds think. Absolutely. That first responder academy at Monsignor McCoy. That is something that I think is going to lead to great things. It sure does. You know, it's let's our young people that might be interested in a career as a first responder, either if police or fire lets them get an inside look at what that might entail and they could do it. You could see it over a couple of years during high school, and I think it's important for them to see if that might interest them and what it's going to take them in the future, education wise and fitness wise, to get them there. If nothing else, if they don't join us in the future, that's just fine. But it also makes for great, informed citizens as well as to what the police and fire are doing, which I think is helpful for the community. It does plant a seed of respect does so. So I think in our society today, that's an important thing. And I think we can learn from these young people to in this program of things that might not make sense to men, our training, and they get feedback from that. I think it's just good all around. And the Catholic Board of Education has been a great partner for that 2025. Also, as you mentioned, saw the cadet training coming to Medicine Hat from what was being done in Lethbridge beforehand. How has that helped? That's been excellent. So we've already done two classes with Medicine Hat College. That's been excellent. We've besides Medicine Hat police officers, we've trained police officers for the Canadian Pacific, Kansas City Railway Police as well as the Blood Tribe Police service. So that's been excellent. We'll do our third class starting September 7th of 2026. Right now that class will be all future police officers, but it may include some external agencies as well. But for now, it's just us. But again, I can't say enough for the president of the college, Kevin Shufflebotham both him and his staff, how they've worked with us to just make that program be an excellent thing for our city and to keep that funding in our community. So I think that's very important. I wonder if you're going to see anyone coming from Monsignor McCoy first Academy into the cadet class. You know, I'm very excited for that. The first youth and they won't be used in they'll be an adult. But the first time we have someone from the first responder academy in our recruit class will be a very good accomplishment. And it will be a bit of a flag for people that are in the class at that time at Monsignor McCoy, of what they can aspire to. So I think it's a great thing that will happen at some point. What is the the makeup of the force? Now, I know that you have a chart in there, a pie chart on the number of age groups that you had. I think some new blood coming this year though we have. Yeah. So it's we're about I think it's I'm, I have the report here, but without looking at it and thumbing through it, I can tell you that about probably 45% or so of our members are between their brand new members to about nine years, and we have percentage that's very senior and experienced then coming upon retirement in the next few years. So I think it's a good mix of experience with young people. So new ideas, people that a lot of experience that know how to do the job. So I like our current mix of what we have, and it's always exciting when you have a recruit class in the building, they bring new ideas and it gets a lot of energy in the building, which is exciting. 110 members in the Medicine Police Service, I believe. I think we're at about 116 right now. Okay. Yeah. So just just a little above that. We also have 37 civilians. Okay. And then within that there's some bylaw officers which of which we have seven. Are we still looking recruiting actively. So we just are winding up our we've been recruiting since the fall. They will the recruiting team will present to the executive team on the, I believe June 16th about who will who are going to be our applicants that will be successful to be candidates in our next recruit class starting on September 7th. So that's upon us right away at the end of next week. And that'll be exciting to. One of the things that stood out to me from 2025 was the fact that the downtown patrol unit increased in size. Yeah, so that goes back to last year and during the budget process in 2023, I believe it was council approved for us to have two more members in the downtown patrol They saw the value of the program and the issues of social disorder and the unhoused in the downtown area, and they gave us the extra members, which was awesome that they had to foresight to do that. And then we put them on bikes last summer. So it's a great contingent. There's a sergeant and four constables there now, and they do a great job of engaging the businesses and the stakeholders downtown, dealing with the issues, but also not just enforcement trying to get people housed that they can or get them to help they need if they don't know how to get it. Now, there are some people that aren't looking to be housed. They feel that they're living their best life out on the street, and that's unfortunate, but that's something we have to deal with. So there's takes all different kinds. What the downtown petroleum are doing a great job. They are building relationships with both the unhoused and the business community. They are. So they're there to help everybody. It's we don't want people to be fearful to come downtown, to walk downtown, to shop or eat downtown. That's not the way it should be. And downtown patrolling is a big part of making sure that's the case. One of the things that impressed me when I attended a demonstration presentation by the Downtown Patrol last week, was how well they know those people. Like, I think it was Sergeant Bourne saying, if you can tell us what they walked like or what they were wearing, you may not know their name, but we will. That's a fact. So I would say that's true of all of our police officers in town. Just this morning at 7 a.m., I was on a shift briefing, and there was a picture of an individual that was involved in crime in our city in the last few days. And these guys and gals can look at the pictures and say, I think that's so-and-so based on the picture. And that's one of the great things about our community is that we're a nice size community, but we're not too big, but we're also small enough that members build relationships with people, but they know who's who and who is doing what, which is important. Firearms update also in 2025. Why was that needed? That was needed? The firearms that we were carrying back prior to the firearms transition at the end of 24, or sorry, end of 25 and 26, they were about between 20 and 23 years old. So although they're not fired operationally that often, however, with training, there are absolutely thousands of rounds that are fired. Those firearms over the years and the parts begin to wear out. The specific fire and we were carrying the model was no longer being made in parts were no longer being made for it. So it starts to become a safety issue if things don't work. So we again council had to credit them. Council may give us the funding to do the firearms transition. We switched to a newer model that the majority of police agencies in our province are all carrying. So it helps for interoperability of training, and it's just a great device to have for our members. And now we'll have that for years to come. They last a long time and they're not cheap. But the technology does last for many years. As I said, the last ones we carried for 23 years. So another term that I saw in the report that I wanted to ask you about progressive policing. Yeah. What does that mean? You know, it means a lot of things. I just think far before the time that I arrived here and long after, I hope this police service and I believe this community is very progressive in how it does business. This police service has embraced technology for a long time. It was an early adopter of body worn cameras before they were ever made to be mandatory equipment. They embraced much equipment like that in technology. We continue to do so with drones. And they were looking at a drone as a first responder program. So being progressive means just not sitting back and resting on your laurels. And it means embracing technology to make us as efficient as we can be based on what we're trying to deal with. So this service has a history of it, and I'm continuing that, and I hope whoever comes after me will continue it. Crime Severity Index is something that is prominent in the report. And I thought as I looked at it, that is it. Can you really compare communities because everything, every community has their own problems. That's right. It's I'm glad you said that. That's a great point, Brian. It's no community is you can compare apples to apples. They're all a bit different. So the community problems we have. So our crime severity index just went up a little was 83 last year, 85 this year. And of course it's always a year behind the crime. Severity numbers are from 20 2425. Numbers won't be able to tell me if it's July right around there in stats can will release them. But we're holding the line really well. But you're right. What is true for one community? Certainly not true of another. They're all a bit different than geographies, different the makeup of its citizens. And it all changes how things are done in the community. So we do our best though I'd like to see a drop in the crime index, but some things are out of our control. Some are not, but we're always working towards that. The peace team was expanded, I believe this year. You expanded it to an opioid dependency program. That's right. So that program is very important. So again it's the peace team works several days a week. It's the police service and our bylaw services with the fire department, the Friendship Center. We actually have a person that has lived experience as part of the team recovery. Alberta's with US Community housing. The idea behind it is people that we see it often around town. They'll live in green spaces or along the river valley. Not right now, of course, due to river levels, but they'll live around the city in tents and whatnot or live in a very difficult situation. The peace team takes reports from our citizens on those encampments, or ones that they find in their own. They go and they try to see if they can get the person housed. They generally know who they're dealing with, get them housed. It's not a safe way to live. Many of them will heat a tent or whatever the structure is with their propane canister or tank. With a heating device, it can cause a fire and it can lead to death. So we don't want that to happen. We don't want large scale fires to happen in our city or in our river valley. So the peace team works to get people housed, to get them the help they need. Sometimes there's enforcement that's involved, and I think our citizens expect that of the police to do that and to not allow these things to happen and to take hold where you can't stop them. So I think our citizens expect that of US domestic violence, the Safe Families Intervention team. Yeah, I know that the charges declined for a third year. Yeah, that's it's hard to you can't really pinpoint anything any reason for that. Like that's if there are things not being reported or if they're not successful in the courts. There's a lot of reasons that goes into that. So I won't certainly say anything negative about the Safe Family Intervention team or the courts or anybody else, because I think we all work together very well. I will say that the that team is doing an amazing job for victims of domestic violence. It's very important and it's we want people to report it's very difficult. During Covid, a lot of people didn't report and couldn't report because they were stuck in situations with people because they couldn't leave the home and they had nowhere else to go because of the situations we faced. So I think the S15 does a great job. I, I always ask the question in the office of why we're seeing numbers drop off, but it's usually not the reason. I think it's not because there are there's no crime going on out there and that's why there's less charges. Sometimes it's that and that's a great thing if that's the reason. But it's not always the case. Yeah, that's the thing with statistics. You don't really know why behind the numbers. You know there tends to always be a story behind stats. As you know you've been doing this a long time Brian. Longer than I have. And you know there's a story behind them. And stats can always be twisted to tell whatever story you want to tell. And it's I just prefer to find out what's the truth behind him as much as we can. But there's always a story there for sure. Fewer mental health interventions in 2025 two. And again, on the surface it looks like oh yeah. So when I when I saw that in the annual report, when the numbers come out, it's it's a good thing if they're sheer interventions. But I don't believe it's because there are fewer mental health concerns in our community. In every community there's various reasons why the numbers drop off. Either people aren't calling us or families are finding other ways to deal with it on their own. But I do believe mental health and addiction, they go together. There's it's a big concern in our community and in all communities, and my heart goes out to the families dealing with it because it probably feels like it's a losing situation at times. My heart goes out to them and we do the best we can with that and we work with everybody. But yeah, those numbers going down don't give me confidence that there's less issues out there. It's just that we're unaware of them probably. Yeah, it's just something to keep an eye on and we always do for sure. Photo radar was the year 2025, when you had to reduce the number of places where it could be used. That's left a pretty big hole in your budget too. Yeah. So it didn't leave a hole in my budget. So the way it works, Brian, is any revenue from photo radar goes directly. It's a 6040 split 40% to the province, 60 to the city, and the 60% goes to the city of Medicine Hat, which they use for road safety projects. That actually doesn't come back to the police service at all, just to be clear. But that's a common misconception that people have. So yeah, we have been doing speed enforcement still with photo radar in school zones, construction zones and playgrounds, which is important. Surprising to me is that there's still a lot of people being ticketed for those offenses in those zones, and those are the important ones to slow down. And because construction workers, they're sitting ducks in those construction zones, and especially for students and kids and playgrounds. So I hope people will slow down. I can tell you I run every day at lunchtime. I see you good. Right on. And I often when I'm crossing a roadway, I get probably coming close to get hit twice a week. It's just because people turning right that are looking left, and when traffic clears, they don't look back to the right to see if there's a pedestrian crossing the crosswalk and it comes. I've come close a lot and more than I'd like to, so I just hope our citizens can slow down, pay attention to the surroundings. And one other point on that, Brian, is what are police officers have done in our city? Traffic safety is always an important thing. Every time we do a community survey, which we just did and the results of which will come out on June 17th at the Police Commission public meeting at 6:00. Traffic safety is always a concern for our citizens. So what we've done since January, going back to November, December, our members in our patrol teams and traffic, they're conducting about 400 traffic stops of vehicles per month. The last few months since January. We're conducting almost 1600 traffic stops a month right now, four times more. That's right. So it's not that we have more police officers to do it, it's just that we had to make it a priority. Our citizens are concerned about it, and I think they're concerned with the speeds they see. So we have to make it a priority if it's their priority. So we've done a lot of more traffic stops. One thing you'll hear in the community, though, that it's not true. I've heard and I've seen it in social media, that we're just trying to raise a quota for tickets. There is no quota for tickets, and my members would tell you exactly what I'm about to, because I tell them all the time, I don't care about tickets. It's not about revenue. It's about public safety. I do want them to pull people over, explain to them what they're doing wrong, educate them, and usually that's enough. And you go about your day and most citizens don't deserve the tickets, and they get probably very happy when they don't get one. So that is something we've been doing and will continue to do. So if our citizens are seeing a lot of flashing lights in the city, they're not wrong on that because it's about four times the amount in the last few months. And I'm very proud of our members for sticking to that because it's a great public safety initiative. I was one of the things that I was going to watch closely with. The reduction in the number of places where photo radar is used, would there be a correlation in increased traffic accidents? That's a good question. It's speed. Does what happens with speed is if there's if there's going to be an accident, the locations don't always matter at that. The locations aren't the cause necessarily, but speed makes the collision results more severe to the occupants of the vehicles and the drivers. Just the injuries are more severe. So it's hard to say about the locations, but I have noticed since photo radar was shut down to just three different areas we could do. I've noticed, and probably you have as well. Brian. The speeds went up in our city, but I have noticed the last few months the speeds have come down a bit because people are getting talked to a lot and that's important. They should and for most part it's education. Some people are getting tickets, there's no question, and they likely deserve them. But there's a lot of education going on. I think our citizens, our citizens tell us in the community surveys they want traffic safety to be a priority. So it is fraud. That is one that is, I think every day you can read a story about somebody being defrauded and don't know if that's any different in Medicine Hat or not. It is not. It's the same in all communities. Many of the people doing it do it from overseas through computers, because you can do that these days, quite simply, and you can hide your identity. It's very hard for any police service to deal with because of that, because it's happening from overseas. Some are within our own community, but most are not. What you'll notice is that the frauds went way up. What I will tell you though, and you likely know this it's the tip of the iceberg. Most people don't report frauds and that they've lost money because they're embarrassed by it. Now we want them to report them, but they don't. Because of the embarrassment, some people have lost their life savings or good portions of the retirement savings because they were scammed, and they're embarrassed by that. So they don't tell their families and they don't tell us. So we hope they will tell us. And we do a lot of presentations all year long at seniors residence. And we've done with the Veiner Center before. We do them wherever. People will listen to tell people what's going on, because we don't want our seniors or anybody in our community to fall victim to that. But nonetheless, they do. That's the thing. If they don't report it, they're actually helping and abating those fraudsters. That's right. And it's it's important because if we know about it and if it's a trend, we'll get out into the media and social media in town and tell people, be careful for this, but people are being scammed. It's unfortunate. One thing I will always say is if it seems too good to be true, it is too good to be true. And if it's a senior, maybe ask your kids. Ask someone that you know that you can speak to and what they think of a certain thing that you're being offered. And with artificial intelligence now, it's becoming even more difficult. So that's probably we could spend hours talking about that, even though I'm certainly not the expert to talk about that. But it's concerning violent crimes against people. Those are the the events that catch the headlines. That's right. How did we do in 2025? Yeah. So we were slightly down in 2025 which is good. The property crimes were way up this year. And the reason for that is anytime that social disorder. And when you see the unhoused like we see downtown, issues like that tend to go hand in hand with property crime. Now, they're not the only ones responsible. So I'm not casting all the blame there, but there is some there. What I the point I want to make here is that it's very important for our citizens to understand, to don't leave things in your vehicle that are visible, lock your vehicle up all the time. And if you have to leave something, or you'll maybe put it in your trunk at a site, but it takes about two seconds to get into a vehicle and probably not much longer to steal a vehicle, so it's important to lock vehicles up. Don't leave wallets, purses, anything of value like sunglasses. Change anything, don't leave it in the vehicle in sight and someone will go on to a different vehicle is quite important. The organized crime section stats I checked off something here that sort of caught my eye. Criminal Code Offenses 363 compared to 167 the year before. What's the story behind that? Yeah. So we have a joint forces team here in Medicine Hat. It's called alert. It's Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams, and it's a joint operation. US and the RCMP and those teams exist. Lethbridge has an alert team, for instance, with the P and the exist around the province. The alert team has done an outstanding job, as they always do every year. There's never any lack of when the numbers, when they're numbers, they show for investigations are a little lower, or for charges or for drugs or money seized. It's not that there's some projects take a long time to get up the chain to find out where the drugs are coming from, or where the guns are coming from. And sometimes when they take a long time, they go into a different year, especially after towards the end of the year. So they had a great year in 2025, and it's very visible in the report. And they're taking a lot of drugs off our streets, especially the very dangerous. All drugs are dangerous, but fentanyl is the big one. Taking a lot of guns off her streets. It's it's a never ending battle. That team does an amazing job. They those teams do an amazing job. Great. Across the province, they communicate with each other. But I'm very happy with the team. The work that team does. They're keeping our streets safer. And our members, our police officers that aren't in the alert team, also do great work to pull vehicles over that are suspected of trafficking drugs or transporting drugs. They do a great job of doing that. So it's a combined effort. It's a never ending battle, but I think we're doing a great job. You talked about the drug seized, and the one that really jumped out at me was the amount of cocaine. Yeah, that 40, 169g that's that was compared to the other years that that really jumped up. Yeah. And it depends on when we get involved in drug investigations. Sometimes you never know what you know, what you think you might find, but sometimes you find many other things involved. Sometimes you don't expect to find firearms. Although drug trafficking and firearms tend to go hand in hand, but sometimes you don't know what you're going to find. And it's surprising. Sometimes it's not. But yeah, the cocaine was quite high. And these drugs are just dangerous for our community. It's good to get them off our streets. Yeah. Fentanyl pills. None in 20 23 and 2024 and none in 2025. That's one of those scratchers. Yeah, it's very interesting. And it's anytime we get that drug away from our city, I think that's a good thing. We certainly don't want that here. Yeah. Organizational wellness this one this one got me as one who used to get up at 330 in the morning all the time. You actually had a program to support the sleep cycle for your members because they do work shifts. Yeah. We try a lot of different things, Brian, like the sleep program. That was something that the Police Association brought in to try, and that was a great idea. It never hurts to try anything. We tried one last year called Circle Brain, where people could understand brain patterns and things that affect them, and how decisions you make on what you how you sleep and how long you sleep, what you drink, and the food you take into your body, how it impacts your sleep and your rest and your brain cycles. So we try a lot of different things. We have, great fitness programs within our building. Our police officers tend to be very fit for the most part, and they do a great job, and I applaud them for the things they want to try, for their own wellness and for the things we try to keep going, to keep that happening gets changed incredibly. In the 30 years I've been policing, until it was basically there was a gym when I started and that was the end of that. That was there was just a gym and there was no other talk of anything else or the mental wellness side of the house. That's a big component now, whereas that was not talked about when you and I started many years ago. 2025 also saw a new deputy chief come in. Sure did be remiss if we didn't mention that. Yeah. So Raj Saini joined us at the start of 2025. He had spent most of his career at the Brantford Police Service in Ontario. He was a deputy chief in Nelson, British Columbia, and he joined us. Raj, if anybody that's met him, he's just a great human being, does a great job. One of the things when I brought Raj on board, one of the things I tasked him with was all things IT related and technology related. I wanted to keep upping our game technology wise. I mentioned at the start of the interview about being progressive, and that was one thing Raj was tasked with and he hasn't disappointed. He's very good at it and I'm not the biggest tech guy, so that's in good at other things. He's the tech guy. So it's he's very good that he's been great for the organization and really love having him as part of the organization. Anything else from 2025 that you wanted to highlight? The only thing I would like to say, and this is annually, but we have our open house on Saturday, June 13th, chief Earl, it is from 11 to 3. So it's the part of it is the Chief Gordon Leadership Legacy Scholarships. Those are for grade six students throughout our city. And there's 22. This year is my granddaughter. Is that right? Yes. Awesome. I'm excited for that. There's been up at the end of last year, there were 275 recipients up to that point. So 22 names will be added this year. There will be displays there from our various units. There will be a building tours at 11 and two. And I just think it's a great way for our community and our supporters to come see what we do, cheer on these, the young people like your granddaughter that are going to get scholarships. It's when I give out those scholarships. They're very exciting just to see their faces, because generally it's one of the first times they've received something like that. Pretty cool. So that'll be right across the street from the police station in an open parking lot. Hopefully the weather cooperates and there will be a community charity barbecue there as well. Okay. And for 2026. What are you looking for? Well, I hope that on February 1420. Sorry, that'll be 2027 that the bears win the Super Bowl. Well we have the hat and the globe that's you know, global world domination. Hopefully that's different. Good luck for us Brian. So I'm looking forward to that and have a good season this fall. But 2026 another recruit class like I mentioned that's exciting. Trying to get better at everything, listening to our community, it's always the balance of doing the best we can with resources we have. I appreciate this community. It's a great bunch of people here. I love living here, and I'm glad that our community are the people they are because the Police service loves working with this and in this community and we appreciate it. So I hope the community will continue to work with us. We're never going to be perfect, but we're always trying to get better for them. So that's what I'd like to say for 2026. Chief Al Murphy, thank you for the visit. Thank you Brian and . Go bears. The bears.