Heart of the Flathead
Welcome to the Heart of the Flathead, where we sit down with the change-makers, the unsung heroes, and the everyday folks who give this place its pulse. If you live here, love here, or just want to know what makes Kalispell and the Valley tick—you’re in the right place.
Heart of the Flathead, is produced by David Wigginton, in partnership with LeftBrainRightBrain Marketing. Listeners can find the podcast online at HeartoftheFlathead.com and LeftBrainRightBrain Marketing at lbrbm.com. The content for Heart of the Flathead podcasts and any show notes and transcripts are copyrighted by David Wigginton. All rights are reserved. Reproduction and rebroadcasting, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited without written permission. Contact David Wigginton by clicking the Send Us a Text link at the top of the episode description.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed by guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or production team. Appearance on the show does not constitute an endorsement of any goods, services, or opinions discussed. This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered professional, legal, medical, or financial advice. Always consult a qualified professional before making decisions based on the content of this show.
Heart of the Flathead
The Human Behind the Badge: Meet Sheriff Brian Heino
Flathead County spans an area the size of Connecticut—and for Sheriff Brian Heino, every mile tells a story. Raised here, he’s fought wildfires in these forests, walked these roads in uniform, and now leads a department balancing explosive growth, seasonal surges, and shifting expectations. In this candid conversation, Heino traces his path from Forest Service firelines to law enforcement, sharing the moment he realized that serving this place was more than a job.
We dig into the realities behind the badge: skyrocketing call volumes, fentanyl and meth challenges, and the ripple effects of mental health funding cuts and an overburdened detention facility. Heino explains how his team adapts through smarter outreach, training, and tools that prevent tragedy—alongside the quiet victories that keep them going, from letters of gratitude to second chances that stick. It’s a grounded, human look at what it takes to keep the Flathead safe while protecting the values that make it home.
Heart of the Flathead is brought to you by:
Heart of the Flathead, is produced by David Wigginton, in partnership with LeftBrainRightBrain Marketing. Listeners can find the podcast online at HeartoftheFlathead.com and LeftBrainRightBrain Marketing at lbrbm.com. The content for Heart of the Flathead podcasts and any show notes and transcripts are copyrighted by David Wigginton. All rights are reserved. Reproduction and rebroadcasting, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited without written permission. Contact David Wigginton by clicking the Send Us a Text link at the top of the episode description.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed by guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or production team. Appearance on the show does not constitute an endorsement of any goods, services, or opinions discussed. This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered professional, legal, medical, or financial advice. Always consult a qualified professional before making decisions based on the content of this show.
Welcome to the Heart of the Flathead, where we sit down with the change makers, the unstung heroes, and everyday folks who give this place its fault. If you live here, love here, or just want to know what makes Callus Bow and the Valley tick, you're in the right place. And now here's your host, Dave Wigginton.
SPEAKER_01:Welcome everyone to Heart of the Flathead. I'm excited to have uh Sheriff Brian Haino on the podcast uh for this episode. Brian, welcome, thanks for joining us, and welcome to the Heart of the Flathead. Yeah, great to be here and beautiful morning. So excited to have this opportunity. So great. Yeah, there's a lot, a lot going on in the world, I guess, of the Sheriff's Department Sheriff's Department, always, but especially now. But um I know you uh recently did a podcast with the chamber talking about some of the the the pluses of of the of the new jail and why we need that. And so today I kind of want to take a little different tact and wanted to get to know you a little bit more and allow the community to kind of see you as you know not as a sheriff per se, but as as the the person that you are. And I've had an opportunity to meet you this year and and attend some presentations and talk to you a little bit. So it's I'm excited to be able to do this for our community because I think they would uh benefit to know the the good person that you are and the great things that you're trying to do. So why don't we uh dive into that? So Brian, give us a little background where you're from, what you've done in life, and kind of what you've learned and how you've ended up where you are today.
SPEAKER_02:So I grew up in Calspell. Actually, we parents had a place on the east side of Calspo for years. Uh, went to Hedges, my Almorada, I guess I could. And then and went to Flathead High School in '96, I graduated. That time I met this girl that, you know, she was running off to go to college in in Wyoming. And I thought that'd be a good opportunity to, you know, go see the world a little bit. During that time, I was actually worked for the U.S. Forest Service Fighting Fires. Well, it's out of Hungry Horse, actually. And it was an amazing opportunity. Got to see some beautiful country and you know, became the Jewel Basin Ranger, worked in the Bob Marshall, the North Fork. So I kind of got paid to do an amazing thing up there. So anyway, so like I said, I went to Wyoming and got a degree in police science, and my wife was in Del Hynjid school at the time. And uh, I thought the opportunity that you remember the store Cabela's. Yeah. So yeah, Cabela's was like, you know, I thought I could be a product tester for Cabela's, and my wife would work, and then I would just do that for a living, and that didn't didn't happen.
SPEAKER_01:So I it sounds like you just wanted to play for play professionally, right? You wanted to be in the Bob Marshall, you wanted to be doing all kinds of different things and just having fun.
SPEAKER_02:I think every kid at the age of uh you know 19 to 21 has a dream of you know getting paid to do those amazing things. But so a couple guys in the Force Service, kind of you know, from LEOs to everything else, said, You know, have your thought about law enforcement? And I said, you know, I I guess I haven't. My wife's dad was a U.S. Border Patrol agent for you know 30 plus years. So, you know, we kind of talked. And so I got out of college and my wife still had a year left, and I did this shotgun approach. And it was one of these, like, well, it's funny. She's like, you kind of need a real job. So she, you know, I didn't have insurance and all that kind of stuff. So I I did this shotgun approach, and I mean, I taught I put my applications out from the federal government to other agencies to locally to Calspell. I mean, I just did everything I possibly could. And the Sheridan Police Department called me back and where we were going to college at the time, and they said, Hey, uh, you know, you want a job? And you know, when you're young like that, you're just getting out of college. I took the first opportunity I I possibly could and and went to work for there. And grade eight organization, and I had some amazing leadership there that kind of you know started that guidance portion. And then I came home one day and so Brian, how many years how many years were you insured in? Uh about two and a half, like two-ish years, you know. So total, I'd say, you know, three to four because we were, you know, going to college and doing all that kind of stuff. But yeah, it was an amazing place.
SPEAKER_01:So did you get married when you were in Wyoming, or did you get married after you moved back to Montana? Uh, we did we got married in in Calispel.
SPEAKER_02:So the I was working at the at the police department, I had we're pretty new, and I had to submit a request to go get married in in Calspell. I still remember the mayor's letter. It says, I believe a man should attend his own wedding much like he should attend his own funeral. So he uh he granted me the lease to go get married. Yeah. So yeah, so we started out there, came home one day. My wife was pretty upset. She wanted to move back home. So I I applied for both Calspell Police Department and the sheriff's office, and I got selected right away and and got to move back home. So it as we were very fortunate. We have three kids. So we have old are they? I have an 18-year-old and two 16-year-olds that are twins. And you don't realize how fortunate you are to have your family around when you you have three children and diapers and you're trying to you know balance that every single day and work a job and do that kind of stuff. So pretty fortunate to have all our family here. You know, her parents, my parents, my grandparents, and you know, even before that were in Montana. So it was pretty cool to to come back and and have this opportunity to come back to the house.
SPEAKER_01:So were you were you did you have kids? Did your wife give birth here in Calisbell or when you were still living in Sheridan?
SPEAKER_02:Oh no, we we were we had that uh we were danks, double income, no kids for a while, and had a a good time up while we were in Sheridan. Uh, you know, traveled a bit, and then when we came back home, we we started having kids. So nice Jack and so yeah. So it was pretty amazing opportunity, like I said, started here in 2003 now.
SPEAKER_01:And so is this at the sheriff's department or at the police department at the time?
SPEAKER_02:No, been at the sheriff's office the whole time. Okay. Had some amazing opportunities here as well. I I mean, I I look back on my career and and got to be an undercover narcotics agent. I got to uh run the search and rescue, the posse divisions, you know, work patrol, just to you know, like I said, the variety of work at a at a as a sheriff's deputy is amazing. I mean, you never really know you could be dealing with an animal control complaint, and the next day you're on a boat looking for somebody, and a day later you're you know dealing with you know it's just this variety of work.
SPEAKER_01:It's amazing. So yeah. And and you like that then. That's appealing to you, being able to do something different every day.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I think there's you know, it breaks up the career. You know, twenty years is a long time. And when you start looking at the the shift work we do and uh the stress levels that we deal with, and you know, kind of sometimes dealing with individuals that they're sometimes worse times, we we have to break that up a little bit and and look at the positives of it. Search and rescue is an amazing opportunity that's you have multiple volunteers that are are sacrificing their time to you know help us out. Same thing with the posse and reserve programs. I mean, so good people, you got to interact with them, and it kind of recharged me, I think, you know, because you go through these ups and downs, like man, it's it's you know, it's been a rough couple weeks, and then all of a sudden, you know, you get this opportunity to work with those amazing people and kind of recharges you and says, Hey, there's there's good people out there still.
SPEAKER_01:So Yeah, you know, it's one of one of the common uh threads, I think, so far. We're we're early on on this podcast, but we hear a lot from the folks in our community just that we've interviewed about how amazing the people are in our community. And granted, yeah, we've we we do deal with some challenges at times, but on a net basis, it seems like we've got a really, really great community full of a lot of great people. So and obviously you're you're a part of that that network. So appreciate that. You know, law enforcement is is obviously not an easy job. I mean, it's obviously something you weren't necessarily planning on initially when you when you uh uh graduated high school, but now that you've you've been in it for so many years, it it's gosh, what what what do you find to be the most challenging thing in in your role as a sheriff's deputy and now as the the sh the county sheriff?
SPEAKER_02:You know, I I think law enforcement is constantly changing. I mean, I think that's one thing. I mean, it's good and bad, right? So, you know, when I started, we really didn't have you know cellular phones as much as we do now. You know, we've had a lot of technology basically, you know, that's been dumped in our laps that we're learning every day. I think it's also the variety of people and calls, you know, it definitely has changed over the years. Who would have thought, you know, that we would be sitting here today with what 115 to 130,000 people in our community? And you know, when we all when I grew up here, you know, I think there was probably maybe 40,000-ish people. So there's a lot of uh changes with that. So population and amount of people, the the the new data, the new technology stuff that you're constantly learning. And the sheriff, I think I always tell people, I says, if you're gonna run for a political office, don't do it during a pandemic. I mean, it I got elected in 19, so I didn't really know about it. But that was probably one of the most challenging things for any leader, I think. We saw a lot of people that, you know, were attacking law enforcement. We lost many individuals in that field. We had, you know, kind of this couldn't go out and socialize with people, all these different dynamics, and not to mention all the unknowns that we were constantly dealing with. And then you got this huge population growth right after the fact. And that's been probably one of the hardest challenges we've had is it's just we always saw growth in this community. I I think if that makes sense. We always saw the you know, the 3% kind of individuals that were coming here, and then all of a sudden it was just massive. I mean, I I think we can all drive around now and go, holy cow, there's just you know, I I can tell you when Home Depot and Lowe's and all that, that was that was a gravel pit, you know, and now it's all developed up, or you know, even taking the south end of the valley, that was mainly farmland, and now it's you know housing developments. And so it's just that that change almost from a smaller community to a pretty urban one. So I think those changes we've adapted to because you have to. And it's just that that we're constantly evaluating.
SPEAKER_01:The biggest advice I give people. Go ahead. I was just gonna say, how have you adapted to that? I mean, it's uh it seems like it's a big challenge when you've got that big of a population increase. Has your has your force increased or different tactics or what what what have you guys done?
SPEAKER_02:You know, I force no. I think we got one one or two extra positions at this point, some of them grant funded. But we've basically we did some online reporting, right, to try to take those smaller entities out there, uh, use our phones a lot more than we used to. We used to go to more residents, so some of those adaptions have occurred. But we've also, you know, I I think we've gotten better at through technology uh outreach to communities, right? So we can now contact people, such as you know, this format or any kind of format to you know kind of let people know what things are going on. I I I I sometimes look at data and I I look back and I think, oh my gosh, it just feels like you know, there's so much going on. I think we publicize it more than we ever have before. People are more aware now than you know, I think when we did before. So, and and I think that's like you know, there's a disturbance at the neighbor's house, and for law enforcement goes up there. You know, 20 years ago, we probably would have never known about it. Now somebody's taking a picture of it, putting it on, you know, social media. There's more of an awareness. I think we advertise that more. I don't think that's always bad because I think people now understand how busy you know law enforcement services are, but it's definitely more challenging in the fact that you kind of get that feeling like, wow, there's just so much more going on. I was just looking at crime statistics the other day from 20 to now. We've stayed pretty consistent, like in call volumes and what we're dealing with. It's just you know, we we are dealing with more mental health issues and drug issues than we ever done before. And that does fall on the backs of law enforcement, which I think we can do better at, and I'm hoping we do better at in the future. But yeah. So we just face those challenges, we look at things, we have very smart individuals that you know work in the organization that do amazing things. Uh we provide the the best training that we can afford all the time to from that being our you know, keeping our guys safe to you know driving to mental health preparedness, how to deal with those types of scenarios. So you know, we invest heavily in our people.
SPEAKER_01:So is that is that just is that a result, the mental health and the the drugs, is that just really a result of just the increased population, or has something else changed in the community that's led to increased incidences of those types of situations?
SPEAKER_02:Well, basically, in you know, about 17, a lot of the funding that was funding those types of services was cut. And so I don't think we really saw those results until you know we're really seeing it now. And then you add that population on top of it, and I think it really is exacerbating everything that we see. So more people not really having areas or placement for individuals that are in crisis care. We, you know, drugs are definitely we I still don't think we know the true effects of fentanyl and some of these other drugs that are coming out. I mean, think I think of methamphetamine, we're starting to learn that you know it's it's frying those dopamine receptors and it's it's kind of turning them into, you know, they don't have an emotional response and it messes with them. So yeah, I mean it's definitely tied. It's just more people, you know, this this generally the same amount of law enforcement, and you know, there's nowhere to really medically put them. So they end up in our facilities and they're dealing with law enforcement.
SPEAKER_01:You know, throughout these last five years, six years that you've been sheriff, obviously there's been a huge change, at least nationally, and the perception of law enforcement. You kind of alluded to this in your one of your comments earlier on here. What's uh what would you want the public in general to know, like what you guys are doing and and why you're doing it and why it's important? And I think that I think this is I think this is key because most people are grateful to have law enforcement and for the efforts that you made. But there's there's a small population that are, I don't want to say anti, but just maybe don't understand the benefit and the importance of what the sheriff's department here locally does for our community. Maybe you could elaborate a little bit on that for us.
SPEAKER_02:So I always tell people I law enforcement is the the one individuals, they don't care who you are, what you did last week, if you're in trouble, they're gonna come. And priority one is always everyone's trying to do the best job they can. And sometimes that's time, right? So when we're dealing with scenarios where we're dealing with somebody that's in a bad crisis, I have to we have to keep ourselves safe, right? And then we have to deal with those individuals. Amazing things happen every single day in law enforcement that you know you there's small cases. I always tell my my staff, I said it's the little things that you don't know you did. I got a letter, I think it was probably probably two, three years ago, and this little girl basically said, Thanks for saving my mom. And it was a domestic case I did like when I first started. And basically this guy kidnapped this gal and locked her in a room, and then they escaped, and then I got the we got the guy or we made contact, the guy tried to come back, and I, you know, we arrested him and so on and so forth. And I don't really remember exactly what I said, but something triggered a response with that guy, like, I gotta get out of this scenario. And you know, they're doing very well now, and so I think those that happens every day around here. And I think those small little things is what you know changes portions of the dracotics is another one where I've had individuals that I have thrown in federal prison come up to me and say, Thanks for doing that. That's how I got clean, that's how I was able to focus on my family. There's there is success stories out there, and I think every day all of the individuals are want to do the best job they can for you know protecting their community and making people better and that kind of stuff. The big thing I need to really get out or I want to get out is we're human. And I I implore anybody, we are now on body cameras, dash canner, GP at it's like everything. And I want you to think about your day and find out if you ever said a swear word or you ever got angry or you did it. If I recorded you 24 hours a day, seven days a week, would you be perfect? And I don't think anybody is perfect, not not a human. I mean, I think that the reality is that you know the expectation is that somehow we are, but these are normal people. These could be your father, son, kid, grandsons, whatever. And we're fortunate here. Law enforcement interacts with our community on a daily basis. They coach baseball, they, you know, are part of nonprofits, they help out here. They don't, I mean, you you see them in their schools, and we're pretty fortunate. That's not everywhere where you know their interaction occurs every single day. My kids go to a high school, and I I feel comfortable in that because I still believe this community truly believes that law enforcement is there to do everything they possibly can to keep them safe. We're challenged. We have a judiciary and courts and everything else. People are innocent and proven guilty by the you know the Constitution, and that doesn't always provide success, depending on what the scenario is. So it's it's difficult at times. And TB is another one that drives me. First of all, Yellowstone, we all know is not true, right? I it's just be CSI is not CSI is another one. They have this idea that I got some gal in a lab in the back that can test things in 30 seconds, and we send that out to a crime lab, you know, and it could be three, four months. And I mean, all these challenges that, you know, and there's a lot of paper, you know. We always watch the the law enforcement shows growing up, and it was like, man, they they never wrote a report. I mean, not once did they ever write a report. And it and about 60, 70 percent of your time is often on paperwork, depending on what your day was like. So I would say I the big point is remember we are human. Perfection is probably not gonna ever happen, but the importance is the human element is also we see law enforcement oftentimes, you know, taking those two, three extra seconds to try to help an individual get out of maybe of circumstances or give them a different road. And sometimes they're success, and sometimes we repeat that same incident again.
SPEAKER_01:Right. And I think, I mean, I really love the remember that you're human, but really all of us. Let's just remember we're all human. We're all gonna say things and do things that we regret or that we aren't, you know, proud of. And but that's not an indication of who we are necessarily or what we stand for or what we're trying to do. We just do the course, normal course of daily living. We we mess up sometimes, and that's and that's okay. And uh we just need to be conscious of that. I I really like that. So you know, Brian, you've talked about a lot of different things here, but you know, one of the things that I think it is interesting or what would be interesting to know is you know, you you lead a sheriff's department for a county. This is a you know, it's a it's a big undertaking. What motivates you day in and day out to to show up, to do what you do, and to provide the services that you and your department provide?
SPEAKER_02:It's growing up here. I mean, you know, I have family, friends, and it's always been a great community. Even for me growing up, I mean, it was an amazing place to be. And and you're trying to keep that constantly, you know, in there. The other one is just the the basically the protection portions where I think specifically in my role, there's opportunities always for us to try to either hold accountability or you know, to react to be able to keep somebody safe. Sometimes that's stopping the DUI at two o'clock in the morning, and you know, you don't know if you prevented a crash, but you know, maybe sometimes it's you know dealing with that domestic and bringing the individual to jail, and maybe that individual, the survivor, has the opportunity to you know change their lifestyle and get away from that. I think those, like I said, it's always been the little things. Like you, you, you treat everyone that like that, and then basically at the end of the day, you're gonna have success stories. On the other side of it, I think we try to be the best, we try to train our individuals to the highest level that we can. We give them the tools so that they you know have the opportunity to to do many things. One example of that, we've invested heavily in less than lethal things for all of our staff because we want to give them every opportunity to you know resolve a scenario without having to use deadly force. I don't know if most people know, but a lot law enforcement statistically, they have to use deadly force. They usually are not, they don't make it in the clear for an extended period of time.
SPEAKER_01:What is that stat? Is it is it is it just like half of them fall off, or what happens? I'd say majority.
SPEAKER_02:So majority, okay. Yeah, five years is and then they they do it. Because again, it's it's not an easy task to do. You're trained in it, you do it, but on the other side, you know, and that's back to you know, you you feel that's you know, a person is going to use deadly or serious body injury against somebody else, and you have to make those reactionary times. And as you're well aware, you know we had a couple years during that COVID time where we had great men and women that were doing a tough job that were you know getting shot at and had to return fire. And some of those individuals with us and some of them are not. And the reason is is I think while it's easy to look at on TV, the toll on that person definitely takes takes its toll. But they do it every day with you know pride because they're there to knowing that they have to do those things to protect themselves or their community.
SPEAKER_01:So absolutely, absolutely. That's definitely that human element of having to impact somebody's else's life that way is like I can't even imagine the the mental and emotional anguish that would create within anybody. Okay, so you're you're you're a caliphable native. You grew up here, you work here, you play here, you've got family here. What what do you do for fun? What how do you how do you recharge, take your mind off of things? Because obviously you're in a high stress job, and so you've got to have some sort of outlet somewhere. What is it? My wife says I have too many hobbies.
SPEAKER_02:That's been the problem. So I think you ever have too many hobbies though, really? Let's be honest. Uh I kind of do a variety. I mean, we got these seasons around here, and you kind of have to break up your world. So grew up skiing downhill for years, did some backcountry stuff before the kids got, you know, were born. But I uh, you know, pretty much anything on outdoor side is what I enjoy. So my dad and I just bought a fishing boat, so we're pretty excited about that. I've been trying golf. I don't think I'm gonna go PGA anytime soon, but I think it's that variety. And I really, I will say I think it's been good for me. My kids are both in sports, right? So getting that interaction, watching the kids. I will say it's more stressful for the parents in the stands and the kids that are playing out there because you know you're you're you're nervous for them, right? You're trying to you know want them to be successful and have a good game, but you're just pacing. My son was a pitcher.
SPEAKER_01:What's what sports do you he's a pitcher, okay.
SPEAKER_02:I was just gonna ask what sports they play. Yeah, he was for the with the Lakers. He's he's graduated now. And then my my daughter plays volleyball, and my son plays football right now, and then they they kind of bounce around when Lander's gonna you know wrestle, and then Cheyenne's doing the the basketball probably in spring. But so I think it's that interaction with the school and the families, and that's important, and so you kind of get that. But overall, it's outdoors, just getting out to this, you know, whatever it might be, just even it it's kind of time, right? So you have to go back to I have a four-hour block here, my phone's always seems to be on, but you know, I can you know jump on the river and go fishing, or you know, go out to the lake place for a couple hours, or you know, something along those lines, just depending on time. I truly enjoy those four or five days when you can just get away and you know do some amazing things, whether that be a fishing trip, a hunting trip, or whatever. I don't even I think I've changed enough that it's not so much about you know the getting the animal anymore, it's about you know just getting out and getting away for a couple of days. So the experience. Yeah, yeah. What do you what do you like to hunt? So, you know, it's bird hunting is definitely a passion of mine, but uh I I think you know, any of the elk and deer and all that stuff is amazing too.
SPEAKER_01:So right. And and fishing wise, do you fish here locally and when you go away, where where do you like to go?
SPEAKER_02:Uh any opportunity I have, I generally take. Uh, but I'd say, you know, around here is fun just because uh, you know, we have a pretty good variety of of different options to do, you know, whether that be pike or salmon or whatever. White fish, you know, a friend of mine took me out this year, it was an amazing, you know, good time. So like I said, I it's those two to three hours where you can just get away and and you know have a good time.
SPEAKER_01:So that and that's that's what makes this place so awesome. Is that you can hunt, you can fish, you can ski, you can play golf, you can be on the lake, you can do all these different things and and all within, you know, a very convenient distance to home and to work. So that's it makes it makes it a great place to be. So what uh when you look at our community, what what does a better, stronger future for for the flathead look like to you?
SPEAKER_02:I I think you know, this comes back to this. You gotta always look at the values of totality. And when I say that, you know, we added, we doubled our population since the 80s. And so you look at all of these systems that we have in place, whether you know, we could bring up roads, which would be a whole nother probably podcast. But I I think you know, you we've we've looked at this from a perspective of okay, the the judges, you know, they added another district court judge, but our facility, you know, the the detention facility is definitely you know that one that's rising to the top right now. We've been talking about it, like I tell people, you know, I started here in 2003. We were talking about 2003, it is now 2025, and we are finally to an amazing opportunity to provide present to the voters an option to you know provide some success. Uh, it's capacity, right? I mean, so you know, we have 120 some beds, which were, you know, as you went to facility, we're we're dealing with a lot of different scenarios. It's a safer portion for our staff, you know, and for the individuals in there, provides program opportunities. And then with that, we also have to look at you know the staffing numbers that you had brought up. You know, we have to constantly be evaluating, you know, how many bodies do we need to be able to successfully, you know, respond to calls to do those types of things. And then, you know, it's it's a tough topic, but pay is a different is a different one. I mean, all three of those, for at least from my perspective, have to be evaluated constantly. And we do. I think it's balancing property taxes with the service levels that the community would want, right? And so we all are feeling it. I I think we can all say, you know, I own a home, my parents own a home, every, you know, and we've all seen that increase. It's just that what what is allowable. I often tell people law enforcement is driven by what the community expectations are. And so I think we have to constantly evaluate like what what what's our number going to be and what's a fair composition wage for individuals. That just doesn't include just you know the sheriff's office, though. I mean, that is I think every business entity is doing that, every every level has to do that right now. And and we've all seen it, right? I we we paid less for our houses in you know 2003 to now. And that value, you know, you want people to be successful, be able to own a home, be able to you know live here and do that kind of stuff. I don't think we've ever been rich here. I I mean it's it's an amazing opportunity, but you know, when I grew up, I many of my relatives, everything sometimes work multiple jobs, right? They worked at the aluminum plant, they were loggers, they were you know in agriculture, whatever it was to you know survive here. I think that's why we kind of have a cool community because it's very blue-collar, and we started off that way. And and people are hard workers here, but they also contribute so heavily into their community. Like you talk to anybody, they are a part of something, whether it be a volunteer fire department or you know, rotary or whatever it is, they're they do something in order to give back. And I think that's it, that's kind of that basis of how our community started, right? We were blue-collar, really worked hard individuals. We've extended that into where we are now, and now we're trying to adapt all that. But I think as a totality for our our community, mass growth, we are still at having to adapt, and that includes a whole bunch of things for public safety to you know the the roads, which I think we all are seeing that come. Compaction. And I think the other difficulty that we see is uh we're very seasonal here. So what three million people come to Glacier National Park? You're staffed to a level that, you know, basically is the people that that live here, but we get huge influxes of people in the summertime. And our our call volume shows that, right? In the summer, we are running a gun, and now we're starting to kind of see that reprieve a little bit. And then we get winter season, right? So whitefish and blacktail now are are are bringing in larger crowds than I've ever seen before. So it's it's hard to staff to that, if that makes sense, because of that extra number. And I always tell people, like, realize this county is the size of the state of Connecticut. So I mean, we have a mass population area, and everybody wants their you know, five to ten acres is somewhere, you know, that's that's in this valley. And we're kind of different in that majority of areas if you go to, and I'm sure you travel much more than I have, but majority of that population sits in a city, and then on the outskirts, it's pretty, you know, rural. Here we're kind of opposite. Majority live out in the counties, and the cities are, I mean, there's still, you know, a large proportion of it, but it there's less population in the cities than in the counties. So it's it's kind of this weird adaption that we're seeing.
SPEAKER_01:Right. So it sounds like you mean balance then. I mean, you're talking about balancing growth with with services and those sorts of things. And so the jail is an opportunity to help balance some of the the influxes that we've seen on other parts of our our community here. So that's that makes a lot of sense. So Brian, we're gonna we're gonna wrap up with our our flathead five, and these are the five questions that we ask all of our guests, and they're just meant to be rapid fire. So what's your favorite hidden gem in the community?
SPEAKER_02:Well, you're not supposed to say that, but I what you know, I would say I still think the Jewel Basin and the North Fork are probably the hidden gems. I I don't publicize that a lot, but I mean it's they're starting to be discovered already, but just the amazing c communities up there, and also the amazing, you know, lakes and streams that we you know are up in that country. So agree. It's beautiful. Both both places. Grizz or Bobcats? Went to Wyoming, so I growing up, it's funny. I was a Grizz fan. Now I'm more of a Bobcat fan.
SPEAKER_01:Both, okay.
SPEAKER_02:What's your favorite outdoor activity in the valley? I still have to say probably hunting is probably one of my biggest sports right now activity.
SPEAKER_01:And what do you know today that you wish you knew when you started out?
SPEAKER_02:Be the best father and family member you can be, because after all the chaos is done, that's what's left.
SPEAKER_01:And when your story is over, what do you want the one or two sentence review on your book to be?
SPEAKER_02:Great dad, good husband, and good community member.
SPEAKER_01:I like it. You know, that I love I love your focus on family. I love you know that the what you you wish you knew when you started out. I think that's we all, especially as fathers and husbands, we we kind of go through that. So thank you for uh for being so candid and open about that. And Sheriff Hano, it's been a pleasure having you on today on the Heart of the Flathead. And I think, you know, I hope, you know, through this we can help our community come to appreciate what you and your department do uh more fully because it's a huge service to our community, and we really, really value the sacrifices that you and your your colleagues make and the efforts that you make to protect us and to help things operate smoothly. So thank you so much for all that you do, and again, thank you for being here on the podcast today.
SPEAKER_00:Thanks for listening to this episode of Heart of the Flathead. We'd love to hear your thoughts about today's episode and the podcast in general. You can listen at heart of the flathead.com or wherever you listen to podcasts, and you can reach David via the contact page at heart of the flathead.com or by clicking on the send us feedback link at the top of the episode description in your favorite podcast app.