Shoshone sheriff battles manpower, equipment 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 its efforts will yield results.
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 deputies to leave the maintained roads. Funding issues have meant the department relies on its own to cover costs.
“Currently, our deputies spend their own money on personal equipment as our search and rescue budget does not support it,” Lindsey said.
Capt. Seth Green, along with the rest of the Shoshone County Drug Task Force, has targeted many drug dealers and traffickers by conducting extensive raids and traffic stops.
“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 said that drug use and overdoses have decreased, as have the number of violent 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.