Commitment to duty — Kalispell Police officer honored by peers

It hasn’t taken Tara Oster long to make an impression in Kalispell.

The young Kalispell Police officer has been on the job for a little less than two years, but she’s quickly made her mark.

Oster was recently named the Kalispell Lions Club Police Officer of the Year.

Police Chief Doug Overman and Patrol Captain Brett Corbett were guests at a luncheon hosted by the Kalispell Lions Club honoring Oster.

Kalispell Lions Club President Denyne Loughery presented Oster the award. Oster was nominated by her peers for her strong work ethic, intelligence, commitment to duty, and community volunteerism.

Oster was also honored with the Jack Wiseman Award when she graduated the Montana Law Enforcement Academy at the end of March 2019. It is given to the officer in each class who is selected by their peers as the most outstanding officer. Wiseman served as a training officer and commander at the Montana Law Enforcement Academy for more than 22 years.

“I feel pretty lucky working in this community,” Oster said. “We have a lot of support from the people who live here and I feel fortunate to be here.”

Oster is a native of Yakima Valley in Washington. Her family moved to northern Idaho and she graduated from a high school in a small community about 30 minutes north of Coeur d’ Alene.

Oster’s mother was a newspaper reporter and she decided to follow in her footsteps. She received a bachelor’s degree in journalism at the University of Montana and went to work at a local TV station for two years. She had thought about changing her major to criminal justice while she was in college, but questioned her maturity at the time. She worked on a number of law enforcement stories, which heightened her interest.

“I was drawn to law enforcement work, but I know I made the right decision,” Oster said.

Her desire to remain in the Flathead Valley saw her go to work with the county as a 911 dispatcher. After five years there and “speaking to thousands of people on their worst day, I thought I could handle it.”

Oster was hired as an officer with the Kalispell Police Department at the end of November 2018 and then attended the three-month program at Montana Law Enforcement Academy.

Her probationary period ended at the end of November 2019.

“I’ve just been trying to do my best work,” Oster said. “I’ve worked with great, veteran officers who didn’t mind me asking a million questions. I owe a lot to the people I work with.”

Oster worked the swing shift at first before pulling graveyard duty with shifts that begin at 9 p.m.

“I don’t know what the statistics show, but I feel like we get a lot more domestic disturbance calls at night,” she said. “During the first quarantine, we definitely got a lot of domestic calls.”

They are among the most challenging calls an officer responds to due to some of the elements, which include the use of drugs or alcohol.

Oster said the shift means she deals with a lot of vehicle break-ins, vandalism and the occasional encounter with people who seem “a little off.”

When she’s not trying to catch some sleep during the day, she volunteers with Dream Adaptive, the Whitefish-based organization that helps disabled people participate in outdoors activities.

Her other favorite activity is backcountry skiing with her boyfriend.

“We go to the Great Bear Wilderness quite a bit and we like to rock climb in the summer,” she said.

Oster said despite the challenges of the job, she finds it very gratifying to help someone when they are in trouble and catching a suspect.

“We do a lot of things that aren’t criminal related, such as mental-health crises,” she said. “Anytime we can help someone in that moment, it’s very rewarding and hopefully they’ll reach out if they need help again.

“Certainly, catching a suspect and giving the victim and their families some piece of mind is very important to us,” Oster said.

Oster’s goals in the next few years are to develop her skills.

“I’m able to look up to several good field training officers, so I just want to keep getting better at what I’m doing,” she said.

Reporter Scott Shindledecker may be reached at 758-4441 or sshindledecker@dailyinterlake.com.