Department Activity ReportII
KDRIsaeid ]Police Deaaatmetta
312 1st Ave. East
Kalispell, MT 59901
Tel (406) 758-7780
Fa (406) 758-7799
e-mail kpd@kalispell.com
Ad®IDmistretuTs
COP ]Frank Garner
ACOP Jim Brown
Lt. Paul Hahn
Lt. Roger Krauss
sups¢ us=
Der. Sgt. Greg Burns
Sr. Sgt. Dan Bourne
Sgt. Chris Christenson
Sgt Brian ]Fulford
Sgt. Dave Gulllckson
Der. Sgt. ]Paul Jacobs
Sgt. Rick Parker
Sgt. Allen Bardwell
O�ee¢s:
,anell Squires
Troy Holt
Mark Mulcahy
John Ortiz
Aim Brenden
Wade Rademacher
Roger Nasset
Scott Warnell
Sean McRae
Dim Wardensky
Chad Zimmerman
Sebastian Debts
Tim Falkner
Kevin McCarvel
Brett Corbett
Michelle ONeil
Doug Overman
Animal Cuntrul ®weir:
Mike Hall
IIDisaaachevs:
Shirley]Frayer
Mike %Stem
Sherry Reid
Tamra Landwehr
Nita Kvapil
O fEw Stair:
Sherri Sonju
The Kallspeil
Our ever-increasing calls -for -service load is
continuing to place considerable pressure on
our available personnel resources. We are
attempting to hire additional part-time
dispatchers to supplement our current staff. As
always, it is difficult to find qualified candidates to
handle all of the demands and
pressures associated
with the duties of
dispatch. We will be,111 -
asking for additional ; -
full-time dispatch
funding in the upcoming fiscal year to help
handle the over 19,000 calls -for -service we
anticipate receiving this year. That will be an all
time high.
Chaplaincy
The department welcomed Pastor Noe Gomez to
the chaplain ranks. Noe is associated with the
Glacier Mountain Fellowship and is a member of
the International Conference of Police Chaplains.
Noe grew up in East Los Angeles and attended
Long Beach State University. He has been
married since 1973 and now lives south of
Kalispell. He is the father of four kids and five
grandkids. Noe has worked in the ministry 28
years with significant experience in prison
ministries. He has made himself available to the
community and the department to assist those
people in need of his services. We are grateful
for his caring commitment and service.
Dispatch Jauuarq 2001
Police Advisory Council (PAC)
The current PAC group continues to help provide
assistance to the department in improving our
communication with the community. Recently
the PAC met to set priorities and then later
assigned members to three sub -committees to
work on those priorities. The PAC established
sub -committees on juvenile accountability,
reducing drugs in our community and community
education, to include information on meth -labs
and drugs awareness as well as community
policing activities. We welcomed two new
members to the board, Mark Pirrie and Bonnie
Wallem. They will participate in the next training
segment in September.
Planning
We will be participating in a mission statement
and strategic planning session this spring with
help from members of the department and the
police advisory council. We hope to have the first
mission statement developed as a result of a
collaborative effort between the department and
the community. Our goal will then be to
establish a strategic plan to assist in
accomplishing that mission in the future.
Training
I recently attended a conference in
Seattle for law enforcement evaluators.
The training was designed to give me the
tools to conduct police agency
assessments and provide strategic
recommendations to assist in
implementing community -policing
strategies. As part of the leadership
cadre of the Western Regional Institute on
Community Oriented Policing Strategies
(WRICOPS) I will be required to assist in
assessments in the western region over
the next few years. I agreed to the
appointment for the strictly selfish reason
of bringing the assessment process back
to our department. The training helped
me recognize the assessment process
and the strategic recommendations
necessary to improve our community
policing strategies. Our department will
participate in an assessment this spring
after a postponement from last fall. The
assessment will analyze every element of
our department and our effectiveness in
the community. The assessment team
will make strategic recommendations to
improve our delivery of services.
Several of our officers will be attending
training sessions inside and outside the
department in upcoming quarter. Those
courses include ambulance and fire
assistance for law enforcement, domestic
abuse investigation, use of force,
investigating railroad intersection
accidents, law enforcement basic training,
incident command structure, officer
survival, homicide investigation and
instructor development. The process of
training to create a professional, 21st
century law enforcement agency requires
constant assessment and attention.
Members of the department will receive
thousands of hours of training in the
upcoming year in an effort to improve our
commitment to the community.
Self Defense
The department recently completed a
self-defense course for women with the
cooperation of the Violence Free Crisis
Line. Officers Jim Brenden and Brett
Corbett presented the course to several
women over an eight -week course. The
response to the class was tremendous
and a waiting list has already been
established for future classes. This was a
great problem -solving partnership
between members of our community and
crisis line. The next class starts January
29. .!'
New Zone Response Policy
The department has adopted a new zone
response policy that is intended to assign
officers to smaller work areas or
neighborhoods. We think this will
improve community members' specific
recognition of officers in their area and it
will improve the officer's ability to
recognize continuing problems and
create effective problem solving
measures. As with any organizational
change it will take us a little while to
adjust to the new procedure but I am
convinced it will eventually make us more
familiar with the community and the
community more familiar with us. The
end result should be a reduction in crime
and the fear of crime in our city.
Updates
The federal "COPS" program has finally
received new funding from congress and
approximately 180 million dollars was
approved for new school resource officer
positions. We have been told the
application process will be opened
sometime in February. This should allow
us to complete the improvement to this
program this year.
The department received a local law
enforcement block grant recently that will
be used to improve existing technology
hardware in the department, provide
safety equipment for arson investigators
and improve safety measures on the
department firing range.
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New Patrol Cars
We are anticipating the arrival of two
2001 Ford Crown Victoria "police
interceptor" patrol cars due on February
8th. The vehicles will replace two older
Chevy Caprice patrol cars that have
served us well over the past six years. It
will take about two weeks after arrival to
equip and stripe the vehicles before they
will be on line. The vehicles will be white
with the same stripe package as the
current Ford patrol cars. These patrol
cars will be outfitted with a new style of
light bar which requires much lower
maintenance than the older "vision" light
bars. They will be equipped with the
standard department issue Remington
870 shotgun and Ruger mini-14 rifle.
They will also be equipped with Cerulean
computers which allow secure
communications between officers and
dispatch and access to state and national
computer databases.
COPS AND ROBBERS
Josh Lawson, who pled guilty to sexual
intercourse without consent in connection
with an investigation into a series of
sexual assaults on the west side of
Kalispell is scheduled to be sentenced
this month. This case was solved after a
small sample of saliva was found on one
of the victims and was later linked
through DIVA to the suspect.
The methamphetamine epidemic
continues to exact a significant toll on our
resources and the community. The drug
task force is on a record pace for
'busting' meth -labs in our area after a
record -setting year 2000 when nearly 40
meth -labs were found.
Along with the increase in drug trafficking
we are seeing an increase in violent
behavior from suspects. This month the
department responded to a number of
calls that are believed to be drug- related
where guns have been brandished and
The reason for the change from Chevrolet recovered. In one case a sawed-off
to Ford is that Chevrolet no longer shotgun and a large amount of drugs
manufactures a full-size police vehicle, were recovered after an incident at a local
Our recent experience with the Fords has motel. One suspect fled the scene with a
been positive.
semi -automatic rifle.
That case is believed to be connected to
the arrest of a fugitive on the west side of
Kalispell where an officer fired at the
suspect. The suspect was believed to be
armed and was carrying a large amount
of drugs. He was wanted for escape and
had ten felony convictions. The suspects
attempted to flee when confronted by
S.W.A.T. members and the escapee
refused to comply with the officer's
commands. The officers fired one round
at the suspect when he believed he was
retrieving a gun. No gun was recovered
but a large quantity of drugs was found
on the suspect. A police scanner was
found in the car. The driver is on parole
for an escape and serious assault on an
officer from a few years ago.
As I close this newsletter my thoughts
are on the steadily increasing
methamphetamine drug problem and the
corresponding increase in violence in our
community. We know we will have to be
ever vigilant as a community to curb this
trend and the resulting negative impact
on all of us. As a parent, a community
member and the Chief of Police in
Kalispell 1 refuse to accept or tolerate the
ravages of this drug on our community
and I pledge we will continue to strive to
eradicate this epidemic of drug use and
violence through vigorous enforcement,
prosecution, and education.
I hope this newsletter finds you well with
positive goals and aspirations for the
upcoming year.
Sincerely,
f44" gwii te2
Chief of Police