Four years after 9/11, are we safer?

Four years and millions of dollars later, are Montanans safer from terrorists' attacks than they were on 9/11?

No, says Sheriff Jim Dupont.

"Anyone could do anything to us they could do four years ago."

Kalispell Police Chief Frank Garner said the same thing, but in a different way.

"We're as safe now as we were then. I don't know if we're safer."

Dupont is more skeptical than Garner about funds spent by Homeland Security in Montana.

"Everything that won't happen, we've got covered now," Dupont said. "I think all the money we've gotten has been a political thing to do. What did it do for anyone's actual security? I don't know."

One of the largest Homeland Security grants in Montana - $2.6 million - has been to launch the "Northern Tier Interoperability Project."

The idea behind the new communications system is sound, Dupont said. It's intended to allow local law-enforcement and emergency services to talk to U.S. Border Patrol, FBI, customs officers, and other federal officials during a disaster.

The grant will pay for portable and mobile radios, radios for a control station and software to program secure radio channels. It covers 11 northern Montana counties and four Indian reservations.

It's a good idea, Dupont said - but a good idea that will cost about $10 million, including about $5 million for radios.

"The only difference it makes is in the aftermath (of a natural disaster or terrorist attack), we can talk to each other," Dupont said.

In a county that borders Canada, he thinks an essentially uncontrolled border is a bigger problem.

"Not to put down the government, but we've got an awful big border. Can [terrorists] still get across undetected?" Dupont believes the answer is a simple yes.

"There's just a lot that has to be done. We're not stopping anybody coming across the border… All the money in Montana has been directed towards communications. I think a lot of other things were needed before that was."

Tina Frownfelter of the Office of Emergency Services in Flathead County said about $1.333 million in federal grants have come to the county since 2000 - before Homeland Security was formed and it was still called domestic preparedness.

That year, the county received about $73,000. The following year, it was $20,000. For fiscal year 2002, grants of about $88,000 were used to buy "personal protection apparel" or hazardous materials suits.

For fiscal year 2003, there were two grants. One, called a war supplemental grant, was targeted for equipment and communications. The other, about $181,00 was for exercises and communications.

Fiscal year 2004, the most recent, included a $484,166 grant, Frownfelter said.

Statewide, 37 fire departments have received more than $3.5 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency under homeland security. That includes more than $250,000 to the Baxendale Volunteer Fire Department near Helena. It's all intended to help fund equipment and general operations, and provide enhanced firefighter safety for the departments under the grants from the Assistance for Firefighters Grant Program.

Local firefighters have benefited from the grants to fund operations and firefighter safety, training, equipment, vehicles, and modifications to fire stations and facilities. They include grants for operations and safety of $84,431 to South Kalispell Volunteer Fire Department; $34,960 to the Ronan Volunteer Fire Department; and $27,712 to the City of Libby Fire Department.

Smith Valley fire chief Randy Feller said he doesn't believe the money makes communities safer.

"I have to agree with the sheriff," he said.

Feller said he's heard Dupont say that he doesn't need a high-tech communications system to communicate with authorities in Wolf Point during a crisis.

Feller is operations section chief for the Community Protection Incident Management Team, which represents the 19 fire departments in the county and other agencies.

It used federal preparedness money channeled through the Office of Emergency Services to help build a custom-made mobile communications center. It's designed to let rescuers communicate on the local, state and national level, even if phone lines and cell towers are disabled.

Kalispell police has it own portable dispatch center at about a half-million dollars, Garner said.

Those are investments he thinks are valuable because during any crisis - local or global - the community must be able to rely on its own emergency services.

"We're not expecting anybody to come bail us out," Garner said.

Dupont, too, agrees that "our infrastructure" is stronger than it was a few years ago.

Still, he believes that, theoretically, there's nothing to stop "five people carrying a suitcase with nuclear bombs" from walking across the board.

Practically, though?

"I don't think they'd waste the effort in Kalispell, Montana."

Reporter Chery Sabol may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at csabol@dailyinterlake.com