The Yellowstone County community has a growing problem with the youth. We see this growing problem in the killings of kids by kids, the increase in drugs, and the tagging all over town. As a member of the criminal justice community, I see the interactions of gangs on our community, youth, and future. We need to take a proactive approach to address the growing problem and protect our kids. To do this, I want to create a new unit within the sheriff’s department and the city police. This new unit would have three responsibilities. They would work to build the informational knowledge about the makeup of the gangs. They would do this to help the area’s drug task forces and violent offenders task forces with the important information that can be used to dismantle their networks. The second would be to work with the other task forces to investigate criminal activities. With these police actions, they would be able to take these gang members off our streets. The third function would be working with the larger community to work on diversion from gang life. They would work with the school districts in the county, probation offices, child protective services, and other service providers.

Moving Yellowstone County into the future can also save time and money, making the department more efficient with the community’s money. The first would be introducing body cameras to the department. As someone who has worked in the criminal justice system, I know that body cameras ultimately save money in the long term. We see this in several ways, such as speeding up cases by 20%, reducing lawsuits alleging use of force, and reducing court, deputy, and county attorney costs. Based on national averages, the reduction time from arrest to completion is 20 days. The county told Q2 that each day a person spends in jail costs about $126, saving roughly $2520 per inmate. The next technology I would like to introduce is AI-enabled writing tools. These would be largely used to help the officer with the grammar and special, reducing the errors in report writing. This new technology would never replace the skills or talents of our deputies. What they can do is help them with efficiency. According to the International Association of Chiefs of Police, report writing will go from 60 minutes per report to 30 minutes per report. The time savings alone would help deputies patrol and work calls. As a former deputy, I would have found those tools helpful. As well as a body camera to review for my report. The final is forward looking change I would make is switching non-patrol vehicles with the county from gas to electric. On this one, I am not trying to get into a discussion; I am looking purely at the numbers. Over a 5-7-year ownership period, an EV vehicle saves the county $12,000 to $20,000 per vehicle. Gas is still more efficient and useful for patrol vehicles because they drive a lot and need to fill up at different times, and don’t have time to wait for electrics to charge. That being said the sheriff’s office has a number of administrative vehicles and transport vehicles. As these vehicles age out, I would replace them with EVs to save the county money.