SCSO continues to make positive strides despite significant needs
Police vehicles sit outside a Pinehurst residence where a search warrant was executed earlier this year. The search resulted in the confiscation of approximately 170 grams of methamphetamine and the arrests of two local residents.
Joshua McDonald
WALLACE –– Addressing increasing levels of crime in Shoshone County has been a challenge, but the Shoshone County Sheriff's Office is hoping that its efforts throughout the county continue to yield positive results.
Last week, the News-Press discussed what the SCSO is doing to keep crime down in the North Fork region. This week, the discussion is pivoting to what they’re doing in other parts of the county, and how they hope to build off their success.
Recent statistics show that the crime rate in Shoshone is up by 19%, but that increase is not a reflection of the work being done.
According to Shoshone County Sheriff Holly Lindsey, the continuation of these successes will ultimately come down to manpower. The county utilizes four deputies working in both the North Fork and St. Joe regions, stretching the department’s available resources to the max.
“It would be a dream to have all of the necessary resources to put toward our county recreation areas,” Lindsey said. “Some of those improvements would include several more deputies to respond to the increasing demand of the recreating public. Our call volume in the summertime is overwhelming to our deputies and it decreases our response time to citizen needs significantly.”
Patrolling and responding to calls in these regions can be challenging, especially if the call requires the deputies to leave the maintained roads. Funding issues have forced the department to rely on antiquated equipment for backcountry and marine responses while using aging communications equipment resulting in deputies working in reported “dead zones.”
“Currently, our deputies spend their own money on personal equipment as our search and rescue budget does not support it,” Lindsey said.
Along the Interstate 90 corridor through Shoshone County, the SCSO has emphasized addressing the ongoing and increasing drug crisis in the county.
SCSO Capt. Seth Green is at the forefront of those efforts and, along with the rest of the Shoshone County Drug Task Force, has successfully targeted many dealers and traffickers by conducting extensive raids and traffic stops, resulting in the seizure of millions of dollars of illegal drugs.
“Based on numerous sources this has caused many of our criminals to leave the area and/or slow down their criminal activity,” Green said. “We have been building a close relationship with our community and have worked on several leads that have been given to us by them. This trust allows us to work more effectively.”
Green told the News-Press that because of this focused approach, major crimes including drug use and overdoses have decreased, as well as the number of violent crimes and property crimes. However, the crime rate as a whole continues to rise.
“We have spent an immense amount of time on training our deputies to assist them in their abilities to provide the best law enforcement excellence that they can,” Green said.