Libby Police Department seeks city funding for officer training

The Libby Police Department aims to fulfill a state mandate to give each of its six officers 40 hours of training every two years.

“We currently have a zero dollar budget for training,” Police Chief Scott Kessel said Monday. “When I first started this job, we had one officer who had had no training in almost two years. Sending someone to a three-day training runs to around $500.”

Kessel, who said he made clear his concern about the size of the training budget when he interviewed to be chief, is looking for solutions and working with the Libby City Council to extend the budget.

“The City Council is very much on board with finding funding for training,” he said.

“I appreciate that the chief is trying to get his people trained and be professional,” Councilwoman Peggy Williams said Wednesday. “In the past we’ve never had a request for money for training, so we’ve never denied funding for training.”

Though he is confidant that his officers are trained to a professional standard in terms of appropriate use of force and legal knowledge after going through the academy, Kessel said that training on interview techniques and criminal investigation training was an ongoing need.

“Regular training keeps officer’s stimulated and challenged,” he said.

As well as working with the City Council to stretch the budget — Williams said the request is currently being considered by the budget committee — Kessel is working with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department and Troy Police Department to cooperate on training opportunities and make them more affordable to each department.

“The national trainings apply to everyone,” Kessel said. “So if we can get together with Troy, Bonner county, and the Sheriff’s Department, we can host a training, which cuts down on travel and lodging expenses.”

Kessel said the Troy Police Department had recently sponsored a training that Libby officers attended, and that the newly revived county DUI task force had paid for 16 hours of enhanced DUI training for three of his officers and members of the Sheriff’s Department in April.

“The goal now is to have a small budget for training and build on it,” Kessel said. “If I can send one officer to training every year, that’s a start.”

Williams said the police budget comes out of general funds, and she believes the chief’s request for training funds will be honored in the coming year’s budget.

“There is never any extra money,” Williams said. “It’s about establishing priorities and moving money around, but I believe police training will be seen as a priority in the budget this year.”