Ronan city council works to resolve police problems
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RONAN — Tribal police and the Lake County Sherriff’s Department have been responding to emergency calls in Ronan, while the city council sorts out the aftermath of the decertification of its police chief in July.
“Lake County’s been notified. The tribe has been notified. They are working with us,” Mayor Kim Aipperspach said at an Aug. 12 council meeting.
Aipperspach said last week that he was not ready to comment further on the matter. City council members did not respond to requests for comment or referred questions to the city’s attorney. Attempts to reach city attorney Jessica Cole-Hodgkinson over a two-week period were unsuccessful.
The city’s police force, which is being staffed primarily by part-time officers according to Aipperspach, anxiously waited outside when the council went into its executive session on Aug. 12, but received no answers about the future of the police department. The police officers were not authorized to comment on the situation.
A search for a new police chief is underway. An employment ad was posted online at montanalawenforcement.jobs, to replace Wadsworth who was barred on July 16 from being a law enforcement officer for the next 15 years by the Montana Public Safety Officer Standards and Training Council (POST).
Wadsworth was accused of falsifying his son Trevor’s employment and education records. Wadsworth denied the claims, and said he was the victim of another vengeful member of the police force who stole Trevor’s paperwork and got him expelled from the state law academy. Trevor completed the requirements for his certification through another training program, Wadsworth contended. He is appealing POST’s decision, but it is unclear when the Montana Board of Crime Control will hear the case.
POST interim executive director Allen Horsfall said council members, Cole-Hodgkinson, and Aipperspach have called and asked questions about how to remedy the situation.
“I’ve heard questions I’ve never even thought to ask before,” Horsfall said. “The communication between us and Ronan is very good. I believe things are looking up.”
Horsfall will be replaced next week by Ravalli County Undersheriff Perry Johnson. Horsfall will still be available during the transition, however. Horsfall said the organization can help Ronan by answering questions and has the power to decertify officers when there is a problem, but ultimately resolution of issues in Ronan will be left up to the city council.
“Running the police department is the city’s business,” Horsfall said. “We don’t get involved.”
Ronan’s rate of violent crime per 1,000 residents, which includes aggravated assault, murder, robbery, and rape, was the highest of 186 law enforcement agencies documented by the Montana Board of Crime Control in 2012. Almost all of the violent crimes reported by Ronan were aggravated assault.
