Lethbridge Police Service showcases renovated headquarters

On Thursday, the Lethbridge Police Service unveiled their freshly renovated headquarters to the public.

After close to three years of renovations the lengthy project is nearing completion.

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“It was exasperating at times,” said Lethbridge police inspector Tom Ascroft. “I don’t know if anyone’s ever built a house, or renovated a house and lived in it at the same time, that’s kind of what happened here but on a much bigger scale.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "It was exasperating at times," said Lethbridge police inspector Tom Ascroft. "I don't know if anyone's ever built a house, or renovated a house and lived in it at the same time, that's kind of what happened here but on a much bigger scale."

LPS headquarters was built in 1996, which might not seem like a long time ago, but when you consider building usage, Ascroft says, it was time for a renovation.

“It runs 365 days a year, 24 hours a day so it wears out three-times faster than a regular building,” Ascroft said.

Among the renovations is an expanded cellblock, which has gone up from eight to 28 cells.

“With changes in the way prisoners are being processed these days, it was just in time,” Ascroft said. “We do find that, that cellblock is full quite a bit.”

The upgrades also features a parkade with expanded parking for the 243 LPS members.

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“Underground parking is very nice for us,” Ascroft said. “We’ve got a lot of technology in our cars now and it was problematic before. When it gets cold, computers don’t work that well.”

The new facility also includes a combat room which allows officers to train on site.

“We’ll do our hand-to-hand training on the mats,” LPS Const. Kara Hagen said during a media tour. “We’ll do baton strikes. We’ll practice with our Taser. And we can run different programs and different training courses on the simulator as well.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We'll do our hand-to-hand training on the mats," LPS Const. Kara Hagen said during a media tour. "We'll do baton strikes. We'll practice with our Taser. And we can run different programs and different training courses on the simulator as well."

The headquarters’ expansion has increased the 3,500 square-metre facility up to approximately 9,500 square metres.

The Lethbridge Police Service says the $28-million expansion will likely be completed in the first quarter next year.