MISSOULA — A few weeks ago, the Missoula Police Department released their annual report. On May 22nd, Police Chief Michael Colyer presented those findings to the Missoula City Council.
The Missoula Police Department shared that the number of violent crime and crashes are down but they’ve seen an increase in other incidents.
Additionally, in the past year, fentanyl seizures have more than doubled which prompted questions from City Council members.
Bob Campbell asked, "Do you have a general idea, aside from great work the drug task force is doing here in Missoula County, numbers in terms of encounters with illicit drugs with just normal everyday traffic enforcement?”
The report also showcased how many complaints the department received and how they respond to those by taking accountability.
Plus, Colyer detailed that the department has been striving to update and send a consistent image of who they are and what they stand for to the people they serve. He said it’s important to present to the public and council their information rather than only put out the report in writing.
"“For me to come here in person and, and available to answer questions, they can hear it, the public can hear it as well rather than just the public taking the document and reading it at face value. We think it's thorough and we think it's informative, but there's always a nuance in a particular question that somebody may have that is not captured in the document." Colyer told MTN.
After the police report, members of the Missoula Fire Department's Mobile Support Team presented on where they're going and how they've grown since their inception in 2020.
“One thing that we had last year was 1,985 calls. And of those, we responded to 1,060 solo," Operations Manager John Petroff detailed.
The team is made up of EMTs and licensed social workers and a pair of each responded to almost 2000 calls for service in the past year. Petroff said that 60 percent of those calls came from housed people as opposed to un-housed.
Also, the team noted that their next steps include secure long-term funding, office space for their staff, and more training.
