Bell releases his first annual report

After his first full year in office, Lake County Sheriff Don Bell can look back and say with certainty that his work as the county’s top cop made a difference.

Bell explained those differences in his first Lake County Sheriff’s Office Annual Report which can be downloaded free from the Sheriff’s Department website.

In it, Bell talks to the voters who elected him to office and updates every subject he oversees.

At the top of Bell’s report is the financial health of the department, something Bell believes he made decisions to improve.

The Sheriff’s Department is staffed by 73 employees and consists of sworn and civilian non-sworn personnel, and has an $3.8 million operating budget. 

When Bell entered office in January 2015, one of the first challenges he faced was the reality imposed by the county’s declining property value that would yield fewer tax dollars and equate to a $190,000 budget cut for the department. 

To add to the department’s financial issue, Bell said he learned that prior administrations met a mandatory budget reserve fund obligation through a borrow- and payback- system with the County instead of maintaining a saving account for the reserve.

“As it has been explained to me, historically, the Sheriff’s Office would ‘borrow’ this operational budget from the county budget and pay it back once budgetary dollars were made available as property taxes are collected in November,” Bell said in his annual report. “As a result, I have begun saving money towards this ‘reserve fund,’ which can be up to one third of the yearly budget.”

Bell said the $200,000 initial planned payment he set as his goal for this year was reduced in order to cover operating costs.

“Essentially, I started my first term with $390,000 less than previous sheriffs,” he said. “We are and will continue to make progress, but as you can understand, this is very difficult given the already tight budget we operate on,” he said. 

Since Bell took office, he made more changes as well; changes he believes will benefit the voters who elected him to the position.

During 2015, four long-time management officers retired from the department while another group  shifted their positions and duties to ensure that Lake County residents were safe and protected non-stop throughout the year.

Bell said budget constraints meant the department lost three deputy positions during his first year in office.

“A restructuring of job positions within the detention facility also resulted in all shifts being evenly and efficiently covered 24/7/365,” Bell said in his report.

Though the Sheriff’s Department only employs two-dozen sworn officers, their work, in collaboration with Polson, Ronan, Tribal, St. Ignatius and Montana Highway Patrol officers enables them to cover the 1,500-plus miles of Lake County and help facilitate a large collection of arrests.

Lake County deputies responded to a total of 1,800 criminal acts last year, alone or with assistance from another law enforcement agency, Bell said.

Those acts included 15 rapes, 11 robberies, four arsons, 92 felony assaults, nine aggravated domestic assaults and eight assaults on a peace officer. Additionally, deputies responded to nine incidents of resisting arrest, 126 domestic assaults, 11 stalking cases, 114 burglaries – including four aggravated burglaries involving assault – 305 cases involving possession, distribution or production of drugs and 112 instances of driving under the influence. 

But Bell’s work as Sheriff is just beginning.

During 2015, Bell logged a 15 percent increase in arrests that were processed through the Lake County Detention Center.

That number is based on the previous 10-year detention center average and poses numerous challenges, he said.

In the late 90’s the ACLU was victorious in a lawsuit against Lake County regarding conditions in the jail. Among many things, one result was a reduction in the amount of allowable inmates given the facility design and size, Bell said in his report. 

The capacity now stands at 42 whereas, up to 80 or more would be housed prior to the lawsuit, it said.

Bell knew from the inception of his term that the Detention Center’s lack of capacity was a problem.

Ben Woods, Lake County Undersheriff told members of Polson’s Pachyderm Club in February that because of the detention center’s size and the level of crime that occurs in its service area, detention center space is normally only filled with the most serious, community-threatning accused offenders.

Woods said the department knew that a change would need to occur, a message echoed by Bell in his annual report.

“It is not uncommon for people who are charged with non-violent felony crimes to be issued a citation and simply released, as though they were ticketed for jay-walking,” Bell said in his report. “As is often the case in drug related crimes, the defendant does not show up for court, resulting in a warrant for their arrest. However, even those with warrants are not arrested due to the lack of jail space to house them.”

Bell said that additionally, it is important to point out that a majority of our criminal cases are drug and/or alcohol related. 

“Burglaries and thefts allow addicts to feed their addiction, and violent crime is often the result of the unpredictability of those under the influence, or are committed in relation to drug activity,” he said in his report. “Methamphetamine is proving to be Lake County’s most problematic illicit substance.”

To answer his current problem, Bell said he chose one solution with the potential to cost taxpayers money. But the result, he said, is a safer community.

“One thing I have done to help alleviate detention population problems is to prioritize the shipment of inmates sentenced to state prison out of our facility to make room for others in our community who need to stay here,” he said.

Bell explained that housing inmates is an income source for the department, valued at $69 per day and paid by the state to house these sentenced offenders, 

“I wish to put our community safety ahead of offsetting operating costs by housing state inmates,” Bell said. 

But the future holds another grim reality for Bell, his department and the county’s taxpayers.

In order to remedy the detention center problem, the department must build a new detention center.

“Undersheriff Woods, Captain Shearer, and I have toured two recently constructed detention facilities, one in Gallatin County and another in Nez Perce County, Idaho,” he said in his report. “Recognizing the lack of jail space puts our community at risk, and the current facility does not fit the needs of inmates, or staff, we are beginning the exploratory phases of approaching you, the public, to gain your support for the construction of a suitable detention facility.”

Bell said it is his goal to construct a jail of which a modern design would allow for safer and more efficient use of staff per inmate, far less risk-management than our current facility, and provide for the ability to follow justice through, rather than allowing felony offenders to walk free. 

Bell said he hopes the new facility will serve Lake County for the next 40 years.