Polson Police Chief hiring was questionable
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Editor,
In 2009, a newspaper recently reported, three city police officers and two deputy sheriffs broke into a Polson residence and arrested the occupant by mistake. The arrested resident now seeks over $300,000 in damages. It seems that citizens appointed to interview applicants for the Polson Police Chief position, the Police Commission, the City Commission and city residents had no inkling of the 2009 event or that a candidate for police chief was the officer in charge of the home invasion.
Section 7-32-4105(c) Montana Code Annotated seems to suggest the City Commission should be involved in an action in response to a mistake by the police, and the action would have to occur in a public meeting. It seems to me to be a dangerous policy for a city manager and city attorney to allow such information to be held in secret. I feel it is unfair to the newly appointed police chief to bring this issue up after the fact. He has nothing to do with the issue of transparency, but, I feel some observations need to be made. One observation is that the Polson City Manager made the appointment before the City Commission was allowed to see a background check or confirm the appointment.
The Leader, on Jan. 5, 2012, reported allegations circulating through out several local media outlets indicating Nash may be involved in state-level investigations concerning Lake County law enforcement. Todd Crossett, city manager, said he was aware of one such allegation, but after looking into it, determined that it was 100 percent fabricated. Crossett said he had seen no charges of any kind, that a background check was done and that there were no accusations of any substance against Nash. However, Crossett failed to reveal and evaluate the substance of allegations that did exist concerning the home invasion.
Margie Hendricks
Polson
