Concerns & Complaints

Concerns and Complaints

For questions, serious concerns, or if you are unsure where your complaint fits:

To contact Lethbridge Police Service directly:
Phone: 403-327-2210
You may also attend the police station in person.

Please note that Public Inquiries at Commission meetings are not the appropriate forum for making or discussing complaints. If you would like to speak with our Public Complaint Director or Executive Director about the complaint process, please fill out the contact form.

Making a Formal Complaint

If you are not satisfied with informal resolution, or prefer to file a complaint directly, formal complaints can be submitted to the Police Review Commission (PRC) using this link: https://www.albertaprc.ca/

The PRC is an independent civilian agency established by the provincial government on December 1, 2025. Its mandate is to investigate serious incidents, criminal allegations, and public complaints involving police in Alberta in a fair and unbiased manner.

What qualifies as a complaint?

Level 1: Death, serious injury, or serious/sensitive allegations.
Level 2: Criminal or statutory offences.
Level 3: Non-criminal misconduct (municipal and First nations police).
Level 4: Job performance complaints.
Level 5: Policy complaints.

All complaints made prior to Dec. 1st, as well as Level 4 & 5 complaints, remain the responsibility of the Lethbridge Police Service to investigate. If you have a question about a complaint you made prior to Dec.1st, 2025 please contact LPS with your concern at 403-327-2210.

If your complaint covers more than one level, or if you are unsure which level your complaint would be categorized at, begin by contacting the PRC at https://www.albertaprc.ca/.

The Commission’s Role in Complaint Oversight

A summary of complaints is received and reviewed by the Commission monthly.
The Commission has a Public Complaint Director (PCD) who meets monthly with the service to receive a report on all complaints.
The PCD reports monthly to the Commission on the complaints meeting that occurred with the service.
The Commission approves time limit extensions for complaints made prior to Dec 1, 2025.

Complaint Delays

While the Commission does not have the authority to expedite the review process conducted by the Police Review Commission (PRC), the Police Conduct and Oversight Regulation directs the PRC to make reasonable efforts to complete investigations within 180 days of a complaint being categorized. The PRC’s chief executive officer is then required to publicly report on investigations that exceed the 180-day timeline and provide reasons for the delay.

The PRC publishes quarterly reports on its website specifying the number of investigations that exceed 180 days, with a breakdown of the number of cases delayed by each of the following causes:

capacity and resource constraints
evidence-related delays (internal to the PRC)
evidence-related delays (external to the PRC)
legal or procedural intersections
other

We recognize that some complaints take longer to review than others, and we also understand that waiting for an outcome can be difficult for both the complainant and the subject officer. However, the Public Inquiries portion of Commission meetings is not the correct forum for making or discussing a complaint.

If you wish to inquire about the status of a complaint, please refer to the PRC website at https://www.albertaprc.ca/.