CHOUTEAU COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT
MONTANA

Sheriff Burdick

Chouteau County is located in North Central Montana approximately 100 miles south of the Canadian border. Chouteau is one of the original nine counties established in “Big Sky” country. The county seat of Fort Benton was once an important port on the Missouri River. Fort Bento, Big Sandy, and Geraldine are the population centers with smaller communities in Loma, Carter, Highwood, Shonkin, and Square Butte.

The county encompasses almost 4,000 square miles with a population of less than 6,000. Chouteau is home to the Chippewa-Cree Tribe on the Rocky Boys Indian Reservation in Bear’s Paw Mountain to the northeast, and contains part of the Lewis and Clark National Forest in the Highwood Mountains to the south. The terrain is primarily rolling plains dissected in the central portion by the eastward flowing Missouri River. The land is a mix of uplands, valleys, coulees, and broad plains.
“This diverse terrain presents a variety of scenarios where life safety can become compromised,” according to Sheriff Vern Burdick.

The Chouteau County Sheriff’s Office is manned by Sheriff Burdick, nine full-time deputies, and eight reserves.
“We have two full-time deputies that work out of the Big Sandy area. The rest run out of Fort Benton and cover the remaining areas of the county,” Burdick said.

The department is responsible for the investigation and prevention of crime, coroner duties, fire warden, civil process, bailiff duties, search and rescue, and emergency services response. Deputies are certified and serve as a modern law enforcement presence in the county. The sheriff’s office is an active member of the Tri-Agency Task Force – a task force charged with the investigation of drug offenses.

The detention center is certified by the state and several federal agencies to house inmates. The lockup is one of only a handful of local facilities to meet state and federal standards. The jail has a capacity of 32 inmates.
Chouteau Search and Rescue operates under Sheriff Burdick and consists of trained volunteers from throughout the county. This team has a number of specialized craft for both land and river searches. The volunteers also extricate trapped individuals as a result of farm and vehicle accidents.

Unable to purchase equipment for his department due a lack of funding, Sheriff Burdick contacted the USDSA seeking a donation of several items including body armor, riot helmets, and shin guards.
“Our department is in great need of replacing our ballistic vests. Some of the vests the deputies have are very old. Our department is small, but we have to cover a lot of area,” Burdick explained. “Sometimes, we get inmates in our jail that have the ‘nothing to lose’ attitude. We would like the remaining items to use for cell extractions and any riot or stand-off issue that could arise.”

The USDSA responded by approving the Chouteau County Sheriff’s Office eight threat level II ballistic vests, four level II riot helmets, and four pair of shin guards.

“Officer safety is always the primary factor when considering donation requests,” said USDSA Executive Director Steve Van Dyke. The riot helmets and shin guards are scheduled to ship out within a few weeks. The body armor will be ordered once all the vest sizes have been received.

DEKALB COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE
MISSOURI

DeKalb County Sheriff Wes Raines commands four full-time road deputies, two part-time deputies, and four reserves. The county consists of 425 square miles with an estimated population of 14,000. The patrol area includes eight small towns, a portion of Cameron, Missouri (the largest city in DeKalb), five miles of I-35, almost 20 miles of U.S. Highway 36, and numerous other two-lane and rural roads. With the exception of Cameron, no other town in DeKalb has their own police department – at least for now.

“The small towns bounce back and forth when it comes to having officers. They’ll have an officer every once in a while, then they don’t. Right now, the city of Maysville has one officer, and Stewartsville has one full-time and two part-time officers. That’s it,” said DeKalb County Sergeant Stan Rhodes.” We also have two Department of Correction facilities that call for our assistance sometimes. We’re one of the first (agencies) along with the Cameron Police Department that respond.”
The request for equipment included digital portable breath testers and stun guns. Sergeant Rhodes says alcohol-related encounters and arrests are on the increase.

“We’ve got some larger cities like Kansas City that are not that far away, so we get quite a few (drunk drivers) coming and going from larger towns. However, we also have some country boys from smaller towns who think they can drink and take back roads home. That’s usually what gets them caught,” he said.
Although the sheriff’s office has had some success in the past with regards to federal equipment grants, the budgetary battles rage on.

“Supposedly, we’ve been approved for a vest grant, but we have yet to see any money. We apply every opportunity that we can, but they shoot us down just about every time. I’ll talk with guys from bigger cities (who receive grants) and I’ll ask their grant writers what are they doing that we are not, but they don’t have an answer. The only thing I can come up with is that they have a bigger jurisdiction and a larger population. With us, most equipment that we obtain is purchased by the officer, donated, or purchased out of the civil fund. We have made some progress with the changing times, but we are still behind with getting equipment that would assist us with completing our jobs more proficiently,” Rhodes explained.

To help alleviate some of the financial burden, the USDSA donated two breath testers and two stun guns to the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office. At the time of this publication, the stun guns and cartridges have been ordered, and should arrive soon. The breath testers are already in the hands of DeKalb deputies.

“One of the PBT’s that I dispersed went to the deputy that leads our office in DWI arrests,” Rhodes said. “He works primarily at night. He’ll have that one in his vehicle so that anyone who works at night can use it,” Rhodes said.H

Huron County Sheriff Dane Howard and the men and women of his department are facing the largest budget cuts in the department’s history. Over $800,000 has been slashed from last year’s budget as Huron County Commissioner’s prepare to finalize fiscal 2010. Sheriff’s office spokesperson Major Greg England expects another 10 percent cut reduction before the final budget is approved.

“They have cut us almost a million dollars. Right now, we’re fighting to keep our patrol officers on the street. It’s devastating to us. The sheriff has said that he can’t guarantee the safety of the public,” England said.
The sheriff’s office has 20 full-time deputies, 33 correctional officers, and three civil officers. The county covers 500 square miles with a population of over 60,000 residents.

“It’s a struggle fighting crime and the budget all at the same time,” he said.
Facing severe financial constraints, the sheriff’s office sought assistance from the USDSA in the form of radar guns.

“We do not have the funds available to purchase traffic enforcement equipment. The few radar units we have are very old and in poor condition. We have a large drug problem in this county. These units would allow us to fight this problem as well as (assist) with traffic enforcement,” England said.

Since 2006, according to the Ohio DepartmeSnt of Public Safety, 21 people have died as a result of traffic accidents in Huron County. Of those fatality accidents, eight were alcohol or drug related.

“With the previous administration, it wasn’t important to (the former sheriff) to run traffic. Sheriff Howard came in with all these fatalities and drug problems and decided that we had to run traffic and be more aggressive enforcing traffic laws. We had a woman come in from the MADD Mother’s Association and give us a presentation. She is just delighted that we are taking these new steps to get impaired drivers off the road. With your help, we could possibly save someone’s life,” England said.

In August, three re-furbished radar units were donated and shipped to the Huron County Sheriff’s Office.

“We certainly appreciate the donation,” England said. “With our financial situation the way it is, the units will be a great asset in fighting the drug problem and enforcing traffic law.”

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