Kalispell Police Department could see its ranks expand if levy passes

Faced with staffing shortages and an increased workload, Kalispell Police Department officials said the city’s proposed public safety levy will bolster the agency’s ranks.

“When the need for public safety grows so rapidly, there’s a big fiscal impact,” said Police Chief Jordan Venezio.

A March 19 mail-in election will ask voters to authorize the city to levy an additional 60.9 mills annually — an additional $369 per $450,000 of assessed property value — to provide for two detectives, a crime analyst and one to two additional officers on each shift.

The levy is expected to generate $4.6 million in its first year. The Kalispell Police Department will share those dollars with the city’s Fire Department, which plans to use the additional revenue stream to build a new fire station, buy an ambulance and engine, and bring on extra full time positions. 

Kalispell City Council’s decision to seek a levy for its first responders followed audits of the Fire and Police departments by the Center for Public Safety Management, which were released in the summer. 

The center highlighted areas of concern for the Police Department, listing aging facilities in need of modernization and maintenance, a vehicle fleet also in need of upkeep, and internal concerns about staffing and individual responsibilities, which have become convoluted or unclear over time.

Kalispell Police Department’s average response time is 9.1 minutes as compared to the national average of five minutes. It’s a worrisome disparity, Venezio said.

“Staffing would address that, and bring us closer to the national average,” he said.

City officials have also pointed to Kalispell’s crime data, as compiled by the FBI, highlighting an 86% increase in violent crime from 2018 to 2022 as well as a 22% increase in calls and 38% increase in detective caseloads. 

The audit conducted by the Center for Public Safety Management, meanwhile, found Kalispell’s violent crime rate stable. And it was lower than both the state and national rates, according to the audit. The discrepancy owes to the way the figures are presented, with city officials drawing upon the change in the number of reported incidents of crime from fixed years while the center accounts for population. 

There were 74 incidents of violent crime reported in the city in 2018, 107 in 2019, 83 in 2020, 113 in 2021 and 138 in 2022, according to the FBI. Kalispell has grown 15.8% between 2020 and 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, from 24,558 people to 28,450.

The audit, though, found that Kalispell outpaced other Montana cities and the national rate in property crime.

According to the audit, “violent crime has remained relatively consistent from 2012 to 2021. The property crime rate spiked in 2015 but has seen a general decline through 2021.”

“CALL VOLUME and response time are our biggest issues,” Venezio said. 

Venezio added that when officers are responding to constant calls, they don’t have an opportunity to deter crime with their presence. He equated a rise in incidents of violent crime with a decline in proactive policing, which includes patrolling and checking in with citizens on a given beat to see if anything suspicious is happening. 

“It’s all about responding to crime, instead of preventing it,” he said of the department’s current approach.

After the audit, Venezio implemented several changes, like creating an overlap in shifts to allow for more briefings, thus improving the coordination of resources. He also began tracking how much time officers spent on administrative tasks. 

Code Girls United, a nonprofit bringing technological training to young girls in rural communities, developed a program for the agency to aid in tracking the department’s vehicle fleet.

Venezio said he separated the audit’s findings into two categories: those he could tackle immediately and those requiring resources. 

A similar request came before the public in 2014 in response to city growth — a municipal measure which sought to levy $736,000 annually for ambulance services — and voters rejected it. 

City staff have pointed out that the property taxes funding emergency responders can only be raised at half the rate of inflation, and when public safety departments are hammered by increased workload and inflated costs for equipment and personnel cities cannot maintain previous levels of service.

Though aware of the aid the levy would provide his department, Venezio said it’s up to taxpayers to decide how much they can bear. He encouraged voters to look at the information available on Kalispell’s city website, and reach out to the Police Department or City Manager Doug Russell to get clarification on any questions. 

If voters reject it, it remains his job to make the resources available work, he said.

“As a police chief, I want to provide the best service for the community that I can,” Venezio said. “It’s up to the voter to decide what public safety looks like here. And March 19 will help decide that.”

Reporter Carl Foster can be reached at 758-4407 or cfoster@dailyinterlake.com.