Sheriff starts 24 hour area coverage

The Missoula County Sheriff's Office has increased its number of deputies working in Seeley Lake and will have someone on patrol in the area at all hours - the first time in recent memory.

Sheriff Jeremiah Petersen told the Pathfinder that starting Nov. 1 there will be at least one deputy on duty in the Seeley Lake area. The Pathfinder previously reported the sheriff's office had been short staffed and failed to replace two open resident jobs in Seeley Lake.

After another failed search to find a resident this fall, in part because of the high housing prices, Petersen enacted a backup plan: fill the role with a "duty deputy" who would drive to work in Seeley Lake full time, and supplement the area with a patrol car from Missoula during all shifts.

"I hope this is successful and it's early, we are trying something new," Petersen said. "But the simple fact is they are getting more coverage than they ever had."

The new duty deputy will be Mike Sunderland, who already took a temporary role covering the area during the summer. He replaced Heath Hanson, who retired in May 2023. He said he is excited to get more integrated with the community after first working in Seeley from 2016-2017.

"When I came up here in 2016, I really did fall in love with this community, it's a beautiful place to work," Sunderland said.

Sunderland will be the other full time sheriff deputy alongside Sgt. Bob Parcell, a 30-year veteran of the department. Those positions are no different from earlier this year, but what did change is the number of patrol cars sent from Missoula.

Each shift, the department will send one car from Missoula to Seeley Lake, meaning a deputy will be on call at all times of the day. For some shifts, there will be two deputies working at the same time.

Petersen said that even when Seeley Lake had three resident deputies, there was no 24 blanket coverage, especially later at night.

Resident deputies like Parcell and Hanson have often been on call in case of emergencies, but Petersen said that was an unhealthy practice the department is staying away from.

"Those two were very, very dedicated, but dedicated to the point where they didn't have lives because they were tied to their pager, and that's not fair," Peterson said. "I don't know if the public realized they really didn't have a lot of coverage."

The sheriff's office can afford to send more people to Seeley Lake because a number of recent hires are finishing their multi-month training. Between August and November, about half a dozen deputies have been added to the county-wide force.

When Mike Sunderland started his shift on Nov. 2, he said he had the weird feeling of starting with a partner, something he said is a rarity in Seeley Lake.

Petersen said while Blackfoot, Clearwater and Swan Valleys do not justify the number of deputies compared to the Missoula Valley, the physical barrier is one of the reasons why more law enforcement is needed.

Sunderland said response time to 911 calls should be "impressively better." Sunderland also said schools will be top priority. When he started in law enforcement 28 years ago, he said he never imagined multiple school shootings happening in America each year.

"We have to be more proactive. We have to be present at the schools," Sunderland said.

And while Sunderland is not required to stay in Seeley Lake after his shift ends, he said he has volunteered to stay up in Seeley Lake, and go home to his family in Missoula on the weekends. He said he wanted to save driving time, but also be in the area in case he is needed.

"I really hope people understand that this model that the sheriff has put together is something like no other sheriff has done," Sunderland said. "We are trying to make this valley a safer place to be."