Polson police focusing on drug-endangered kids

Polson Police Chief Wade Nash wants one thing for drug dealers in the city: paranoia.

“I want them to be paranoid. I want them to go, ‘you know what? We don’t want to go to Polson because we don’t know what house they’re going to hit next.”

Unannounced raids will continue in the future, he said, with the goal for drug dealers to no longer house their operations in the city.

“Basically, if you sell drugs in Polson, I’m going to knock your door in and I’m going to remove your kids from your house. If you’re a drug dealer, don’t come here.”

Wade’s sentiment came a week after the department successfully raided homes where drugs were discovered within city limits, and six children were taken into protective custody.

For the last several months, Nash said that there was planning that went into the first raid, which was named “Operation: Blue Christmas.”

Six children were taken from four homes in which there were warrants, and an array of drugs, paraphernalia and cash were seized by the department.

The chief said that in addition to the drug issues at the houses, officers are looking into human trafficking that was possibly conducted at some of the undisclosed locations.

About two months ago, he said he put together a team to gather information and data to conduct the raids.

“We’re going to continue to hit houses in Polson,” Nash started, adding, “It’s basically the philosophy of the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children… We’re going to go in and remove these kids, or at least give them a safe living environment, because they deserve that.”

Melanie Smith, coordinator of Community Strong Drug Endangered Children’s Project for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, explained that Polson Schools learned about a program called Handle with Care while officials, including Nash, were at a training opportunity with the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children.

The training is a program that encourages partnerships between community members, looking at children who are in drug-endangered homes.

It also provides tools to assess how social services, law enforcement, medical personnel and schools handle the aftermath of those situations.

In addition to focusing on children, Smith said that multiple professions are taught to work together, where the outcome is the wellbeing of children.

While putting programs in place to identify and help these children, Smith said that when the Alliance came to the area to do training, it helped complete a bigger picture.

“It was really exciting… It was like a missing piece of the puzzle for our community,” Smith recalled of the training.

In the Handle With Care program, a vague, discreet email is sent to school counselors after a raid or any type of other interaction that can cause a child trauma, so that they know to give that student a little more attention.

“We’re thinking we did a great job, the kid is traumatized and is acting out, the teacher has no idea that we raided their house,” Nash said.

Criminal justice information is not provided to the school, he affirmed.

A briefing is completed before each raid, where Nash said a checklist is completed.

“Are there going to be kids in the house? Have we notified Child Protective Services so that when we get there, they (children) aren’t sitting there forever, traumatized?” he said.

Nash acknowledged that the drug issues in the county aren’t only being fought here.

“What we’re dealing with here is affecting the nation,” he said, noting that the drug problem is something that is dealt with across state lines.

One facet is that the court system “is backed up.”

“We have no control over the justice system, but we do have control over what we can do in our community.”

Removing the children from the drug-fueled environment is his goal, giving the children access to resources through the PPD and child services.

“I can’t rely on the court system, but I can make a difference today,” he said.

Noting that it is one situation when an adult decides to ingest drugs, it’s another situation to inflict the choice on children, who have no say in what happens to them.

“I’m not okay with that. I’m the voice of the child,” Nash said.