A Merry Chase: Law enforcement legend calls it quits
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
POLSON — Last names like Payne for an orthopedic surgeon, Sprinkle for a fireman or Chase for a policeman seem to be self-fulfilling prophecies, especially in Polson Police Chief Doug Chase’s case. He is 69 years old, and he has been in law enforcement for 46 of those years. When Polson was lucky enough to hire Chase as chief of the PPD in 2002, Chase promised them five years, but he waited nine years to retire.
Chief Chase said he wanted to be either a cop or a firefighter when he was a youngster growing up in Great Falls and Butte. Cop is an abbreviation for Constable on Patrol, a British phrase, so it’s not offensive to law enforcement according to Chase.
“But I think my heartstrings pulled me towards being a policeman. I knew an awful lot of police officers, made friends with them and they tipped the balance,” Chase explained.
Chase began his career with the Missoula Police Department, the only applicant for three positions.
“When I was 21 years old, I wouldn’t have hired myself,” Chase said, stating immaturity as a reason.
Training was very sparse and minimal until the Montana Law Enforcement Academy was established, Chase said, and he had eight years on the force before the academy came into being. He was in class number seven or eight.
“If the officers are properly trained, they will do their job properly and the public will be well served,” Chase explained.
One of Chief Chase’s top priorities has always been training. Lack of training was a factor in an incident two weeks after his wedding in 1965 when he was shot in action. A man had robbed the Milltown Bar at gunpoint. While many other Missoula officers headed that way, Chase turned up Pattee Canyon to monitor traffic. He didn’t consider the fact the robber might try to escape via backroads, and when he stopped the robber, he didn’t fan his flashlight over the front seat of the car where the man’s gun was in plain sight. Thanks to help from fellow officers and luck, Chase survived the three gunshot wounds.
“That incident up Pattee Canyon plus the response from the community changed my life,” Chase said. “What drove home the point? Two things, being shot and my realizing that my supreme being allowed me to be on this earth to continue and my wife also. And the community outpouring in Missoula. We had only been married two weeks, there were pictures on the front page of the Missoulian, our wedding picture. Everyone sent cards, even the sororities and fraternities.
“One card,” Chase remembered, ”said, ’We don’t allow people to come into town and shoot our policemen’ signed Little Old Lady in Tennis Shoes.”
Another defining moment sticks out in Chase’s mind. When Chase first got started as a policeman, he was young, immature and “had a shiny badge.”
A waitress at the old Bugs’ Barbecue in Missoula, where Denny’s on Brooks Street is now, set Chase straight. The joint was famous for its pies, Babe’s pies, and it was so noisy you could not hear yourself think according to Chase. It was flooded with bowlers after 10 p.m. and was a favorite watering hole for off-duty police officers.
Usually it was so noisy you couldn’t hear yourself think, Chase said, but “Whatever I said to this seasoned waitress, God made everything silent.”
She replied, “If I could buy you for what I think you are worth, and sell you for what you think you are worth, I would not have to put up with this ...”
“That waitress probably did more for me, putting me in my place, humbling me and making me realize an officer’s projection is perception and perception is reality in almost all cases,” Chase said.
He and the waitress became good friends eventually, too.
Listening to the KGBO 11 o’clock news, Chase heard a homily to model himself after.
“It’s nice to be important and so much more important to be nice,” Chase repeated.
And he is nice. He is also well-respected and well-known around the state. Since 2002, Chase has formed an exceptional team of officers, and the crime statistics have gone down. With three strong sergeants serving as the communication link between the chief and assistant chief and the officers, the force is “young, positive, directed and energetic.”
“This is an open-door department, team-oriented. Anybody can make a suggestion, and most suggestions become reality,” Chase noted. “I’d put my officers up against any department statewide and maybe more,” Chase said.
“I will miss this department,” he added. “I love this town. This was my dream for 30-plus years. Someday I wanted to be Chief of Polson Police.”
When Chase opened the Missoulian and saw the Polson Police Chief job advertised, he went to his wife and said he thought he had gone to heaven.
Always appreciating and mentioning his wife Guy’s support, Chase said, what other partner in life would allow her husband to come to Polson and be away from home during the winter months for three or four days a week?
After retirement, the Chases plan to live in Missoula during the winter and in Polson during the summer.
They’re both going to go to St. Patrick’s Hospital and see if they can find a volunteer job.
The Chases have three children and six grandchildren, including identical twin girls in Brussels, Belgium, so there will lots of time with the grandkids, “the lights of our lives.”
Also, even though he’s a Montana native, Chase hasn’t seen a lot of the state, so they plan to hit the backroads of Montana about every 10 days or two weeks and stick to this side of the continental divide. Then they will go to eastern Montana, Glendive and Sidney.
“My plate is full,” Chase said, “because I have that partner to share it with.”
Polson will miss Chief Chase, though.
