SUPERIOR — The Mineral County Sheriff's Office has lost two sheriff's mid-term in recent years which officials say hit morale, but the new sheriff in town is hoping to change that.
We showed you the jail reopening not too long ago and now the Sheriff's Office is getting a new fleet of patrol vehicles.
"We had duct tape holding cars together, two engines had gone out," said Mineral County Sheriff Mike Toth, who is continuing to spruce up the department; this time with a first.
"They've never had a new fleet like this, ever, it's always been one at a time," Sheriff Toth said as a fleet of new patrol cars lined the road in Superior Wednesday.
"I didn't even have a patrol car," Sheriff Toth said. :I had to loan it to a deputy because it's more important for him to go to calls than me."
Sheriff Toth has been using his personal car to respond to calls for a while and added that previously the department's vehicles had been hand-me-downs.
"And the maintenance bills and all that are just outrageous," said Sheriff Toth.
A financing company in Washington helped with the first six, and work for the federal government helped pay for the seventh car.
During their off-hours, deputies help with a federal program called Operation Stonegarden, working human trafficking and narcotics on Interstate 90.
Sheriff Toth says if they work that enough, the Sheriff's Office can hopefully get the eighth vehicle.
That would mean everyone in the Mineral County Sheriff's Office would have one -- including him, the undersheriff, and all six deputies.
Representatives from a design company in Minnesota even flew out to apply the designs.
"The sheriff here gave us a call, about a year ago. He saw a video of other police department graphics we did," explained BlackFire Creative production manager and designer Nick Mueller.
He said it's a nice first trip to Montana, "it's definitely the furthest we've traveled."
Sheriff Toth said ehen he came on, deputy morale has been incredibly low.
"The department was just in shambles. The equipment was old and outdated, they weren't wearing uniforms anymore," Sheriff Toth reflected. "They were calling people instead of going on calls."
"I said 'hey, let's change the image, let's stop being the laughing stock of the state,'" the sheriff told MTN News.
The deputies are back in uniform now and are all geared up having received new tasers and body cameras.
Coming up in June new cameras will be installed in the new vehicles.
