Lethbridge police chief accused of breaking COVID rules has complaint dismissed

A police oversight board says it has dismissed a complaint that a southern Alberta police chief allegedly broke public health restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. It comes after a former deputy chief with the Lethbridge Police Service had claimed Chief Shahin Mehdizadeh violated a public health order by taking a chaplain out for lunch in March 2021.

A disciplinary hearing by the Lethbridge Police Commission concluded Monday and dismissed the allegations. An agreed statement of facts says Mehdizadeh and the chaplain were masked and properly socially distanced throughout the luncheon.

In his decision, Presiding Officer Brett Carlson concluded the chief did not mean to break the rules, apologized and didn't do it again, and Carlson said the chief's actions were a ``moment of carelessness or error in judgment.''

Mehdizadeh, in a statement sent by Lethbridge police, accused the former deputy chief of making numerous complaints about him, and that some have been dismissed as ``frivolous and vexatious.''