SEELEY LAKE - Mary Strumpfer is taking the streets as Seeley Lake’s new resident trooper for the Montana Highway Patrol.
In her new position Strumpfer hopes to bring more traffic safety knowledge to the community especially when the tourism season is high in the summer.
“There’s a lot of children on the sidewalks and crossing the roads,” she said. “The safer that people drive, the less instances that we have where we have to deal with possibly traumatic things.”
Strumpfer graduated Seeley-Swan High School in 2017 and was officially sworn in as a peace officer in the state of Montana on Sept. 3, 2020. She is currently in the process of getting her associates degree in forensic science and criminology from the University of Montana.
She has been interested in pursuing law enforcement as a career ever since she was a child after she had a traumatic experience. In high school, Strumpfer accompanied her sister Cera while Cera was speaking with a military recruiter to look at their military police force. One of the recruiters there was a patrolman who swayed Strumpfer into joining the highway patrol.
“[She] let me know that you can still do certain jobs, you can still help people and children in certain ways, but you can still drive the beautiful state of Montana and not necessarily get deployed out somewhere that doesn’t have the views that we have here,” she said.
Strumpfer has been employed with the agency since April 2019. She was technically certified to be sworn in September 2019 but had to take a break to have her child in between training.
She had to attend a law course to learn several criminal codes that cover traffic violations and community disturbances. She went through the 12-week Montana Law Enforcement Officer basic course at the Montana Law Enforcement Academy in Helena. After graduating from that, she spent an additional 10 weeks training in the highway patrol’s advanced academy which covers crash investigation. After being sworn in, she rode with another trooper for about 10 weeks.
She is CPR certified and is able to identify the presence of someone under the influence of alcohol and or drugs including being able to detect odors. As part of her training she also had to learn how to drive under high stress conditions as well as learn how to utilize three different firearms.
Her favorite aspect about working for the Montana Highway Patrol is the freedom of the position.
“I get to drive all the way up to Condon, Ovando, Potomac and you get to watch the sunrise or the sunset,” she said. “And then of course, you have to make your stops and you have to educate the public on certain traffic laws and why they’re important to follow. As long as you’re kind to the people [they’re] typically kind back.”
For her, the most challenging aspect of the position is seeing people understand the consequences they are about to face for their actions.
“But then you also have to realize that their choice is what led you to meeting them,” she said.
Another challenge is separating emotions when dealing with accidents involving children.
“Since I have such a little one, having crashes that involve little ones [and] trying not to make that personal connection, but that [connection is] also what connects you with [the] community,” she said. “[You] want to make personal connections in certain ways, but other ways you kind of want to avoid that so you don’t make it harder for yourself to deal with.”
Strumpfer said it feels good to be able to work in her hometown but there are pros and cons. When it comes to stopping people she knows personally, she tries to keep her interactions professional.
“I don’t change anything other than my introductions because they typically know who I am,” she said. “I’ll just tell them the reason I stopped you today is this and this is why we’re gonna take these enforcement actions. ... I definitely let everybody know even when they’re like, ... ‘Oh, you’re not gonna pull me over,’ and I’ll just be like, ‘Hey, don’t give me a reason. I got a job and I know you’ll respect that.’ So [if we] wave at each other as you’re driving by instead of me walking up to your window, we’ll be just fine.”
Strumpfer was recently involved in a manhunt for a homicide that took place in eastern Missoula. She said it was an intimidating experience because she was still in training.
“It definitely is a reality hit for you that it could very easily turn sideways for you in this job because we were heading back to the office about to [come] off shift when this came out,” she said. “Next thing you know, we’re going through the woods and the trees and the snow looking for a guy that might be armed.”
Fortunately, the suspect was apprehended in Missoula without incident.
Eventually Strumpfer would like to become a sergeant. She is also interested in becoming a homicide detective.
She said people should not reach out to her personally when an emergency is taking place. Instead they should call 9-1-1 so it can be officially reported and logged.
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