Polson hires interim chief to helm department

“This is a great department. We have great people that work here,” said Polson Police Chief George Simpson. “We've done lots of great things over the years and we have lots of great things to come in the future.”

Simpson has been serving as Polson’s interim chief since April, when his former boss, Wade Nash, retired after a DUI arrest. He’s been with the department for eight years, as both a sergeant and captain, and was a Lake County deputy for over two years prior to that. Before moving to Montana, he worked for the sheriff’s department in Jacksonville, Fla., and spent nine years in the U.S. Navy.

His wife, Laura, is also a Navy veteran and the couple has two daughters – one a recent Polson High graduate who is attending the culinary arts program at Flathead Valley Community College and the second who will graduate this year.

Simpson was formally hired on as police chief last week after a national search yielded 21 candidates and five finalists for the job. His hiring came at the end of a lengthy process that included a blind-screening and ranking of resumes, preliminary interviews the city manager, the human resources coordinator and a guest law enforcement professional, and a full-day of on-site interviews with the city’s leadership team.

“In total, the candidates were evaluated by 14 different individuals during the hiring process,” said City Manager Ed Meece in a press release announcing the appointment. “The City of Polson is excited for the contributions that George Simpson will make to our community.”

Simpson was undaunted by the lengthy hiring process.

“The higher you go up, the steeper the climb is going to be. And it's good to get tested like that and go through that entire process,” he said. “Everything that I've had in my life has been handmade and done the hard way.”

In addition to his basic law enforcement certification, Simpson has earned advanced, supervisory and command certificates, and basic and advanced coroner certifications. He also graduated from the FBI Executive Command College and the bureau’s Executive Development Supervisor and Command Leadership Institute.

Simpson earned a bachelor’s degree in social science and psychology and completed a master’s in public administration from the University of Montana in 2022.

In a recent interview, he said he’s excited about the opportunities his new job presents to continue shaping the department and channeling its resources in a positive direction.

“I would like people to know the good job that the officers do,” he says. “The men and women that work in this department are phenomenal.”

Simpson’s staff includes 13 officers and a police clerk/evidence tech, and the department is advertising for an additional three officers. They respond to an average of 9,000 calls a year in a community of around 6,000 people – a population that nearly triples during the summer months.

He says the department has “outstanding” reciprocal relationships with other law enforcement entities, including Tribal Law Enforcement, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and the Highway Patrol, and even departments in Ronan and St. Ignatius and Flathead County.

“Part of that comes from just being in Montana. You need your neighbors and your neighbors need you,” he said. “So we're used to that here and that's just what we do for one another.”

Making a difference for children

During his tenure in Polson, Simpson has helped initiate some innovative programs, including participation in the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children, which helps kids caught in a family cycle of drug abuse and violence “change their trajectory.” Officers are trained to work with schools, social workers, and even other city departments to take a more holistic approach to helping kids caught in situations beyond their control.

“We try to involve everybody that we can because the idea is to lift the child out of that environment and change their trajectory so they don't end up in that cycle,” he explains.

Simpson is a national trainer for the alliance and says the Polson Police Department has developed an investigative model and four online programs that are available across the country for law enforcement officers and others, including families, Child Protective Service workers and teachers.

“They can get on there and they can take those courses and recognize those signs and what's going on with these children,” Simpson says. “And recognize how to help their parents as well.”

They’ve also developed an app, tied to Google Maps, that offers a list of available resources and training options. Over the years, these efforts have made Polson’s police department “a kind of a national model for smaller cities and rural agencies.”

The program doesn’t diminish the department’s efforts to track down drug dealers in the community. But it does recognize that addiction problems can be generational.

Doing more with less

Simpson, realizing that financial resources are limited, has pursued funding to help enhance the effectiveness and safety of his officers. Among the improvements are the addition of new body and dashboard cams to help collect digital evidence, as well as a new cloud storage provider to help with record and case retention.

“We're the first agency in Montana to have that,” he says.

The department also recently received a grant to purchase new ballistic shields for its officers.

Simpson says the department is also dedicated to making mental health resources available to officers. “We could go from a crash where an infant just died, to a barking dog call, to a suicide call – you just never know where you're going to get in your 10 hours,” he says. “And then you got to go home to your family and then come back and do it all again tomorrow.”

During his own career in Jacksonville, he was involved in some incidents that involved the use of deadly force. “Counseling really helped me and my family, and helped me have that conversation with my children,” he says. “So I'm a big fan of that.”

He adds that there’s often a stigma attached to officers’ needing help, the notion “that it’s kind of weak. But I'm here to tell you it's not.” That’s a message he communicates to every officer, while making sure they know resources are available, including a counselor in Kalispell who specializes in working with veterans and first responders.

At the same time, Simpson insists his officers maintain high ethical standards. “Just because we have the right to arrest somebody doesn't mean we have the right to take away their dignity,” he says.

Connecting with the community

Community outreach is also important to Simpson. During his time as interim chief, he held two public safety forums and invited members of the downtown business community to discuss their concerns about vagrancy and disorderly conduct on Main Street and adjacent areas.

After the first meeting, Simpson asked officers to inspect lighting in the downtown area. They identified 12 street lamps that weren’t working correctly and worked with the Public Works Department to change bulbs; issues with cleanliness in the alleys were directed to the city’s code enforcer.

Foot patrols were increased, and Simpson encouraged officers to visit with businesses as well. When he coordinated a second meeting this summer, participants said they noticed the differences and the feedback was positive.

Simpson plans to host public safety forums quarterly “because the issues that we face in July as a community aren't the same issues that we face in January as a community – when kids are back in school, when there's ice and there's snow out there.”

For the can-do police chief, who is confident his officers are the best in the state, the path forward is bright.

“I honestly believe that the work that the men and women do here is going to change the world,” he says. “I believe that.”