Great Falls Police Department Downtown Summer Safety Initiative

Photo credit Great Falls Police Department The Great Falls Police Department (GFPD) is addressing a continued rise in criminal activity in the downtown area, a trend that has intensified over the past several months and is expected to increase with warmer weather. Incidents involving crimes, such as panhandling, public intoxication, trespass, criminal mischief, theft, fighting, and disturbing the peace are becoming more frequent and disruptive. While GFPD recognizes many of these behaviors may be connected to deeper, underlying issues, criminal behavior cannot and will not be tolerated. This is not a new concern, but one that has intensified and now requires enhanced, coordinated efforts to mitigate. GFPD is actively working in partnership with downtown business owners, the Great Falls City Attorney’s Office, Great Falls Municipal Court, the Business Improvement District, the Downtown Association, Downtown Safety Alliance, and the Cascade County Sheriff’s Office. In the coming days, and throughout the summer months, community members will notice an increased police presence downtown. GFPD’s Directed Enforcement Team (DET) and School Resource Officers (SRO) will be downtown performing patrols on foot, in the side by side, and in marked and unmarked patrol vehicles. The teams, led by two GFPD Sergeants have been given the directive of zero tolerance for criminal activity to be addressed through enforcement to include arrests. The GFPD has re-directed these two teams from their regularly assigned duties, making downtown safety and enforcement our Summer 2025 priority. DET is a small, focused unit of officers dedicated to solving specific problems. The team consists of a sergeant and two patrol officers. DET officers work on high-impact issues such as nuisance properties, serving warrants, traffic saturation patrols, and responding to locations or individuals who demand targeted attention. They also support patrol officers in their day-to-day duties. The SRO team consists of a sergeant and four detectives. When school is not in session, SRO’s are regularly assigned cases as part of the Investigations Bureau and also perform administrative functions relating to the schools, revising safety plans related to the schools, and training. We are excited to be part of another event-filled summer in our thriving downtown. We look forward to the Farmer’s Market, music events, night markets and sidewalk sales, pedlets, and festivals. But we need the community’s help to ensure a safe and fun summer for everyone. We strongly encourage community members or visitors to call… 911 for emergencies, when a person or property is in imminent danger, or when a violent criminal act is happening or about to happen (a fight, an assault, breaking windows, hitting a vehicle, grabbing someone’s bag from them, anything that includes one person touching another person, a theft where the suspect is still there, etc) NON-EMERGENCY LINE (406-455-8599) when a non-violent crime is happening (when someone is being made to feel uncomfortable, when someone is harassing patrons dining at a pedlet, when someone is begging for money or performing a vulgar act in view of the public, to report a theft that occurred in the past and no suspect is present, etc) Downtown businesses are encouraged to look out for each other. If you see something happening at or near a neighboring business, please take the initiative to report it. “Our downtown is the heart of Great Falls; keeping it safe and welcoming is a shared responsibility, and unlawful behavior will be addressed. This is a team effort. We are working closely with our public safety partners and local organizations to address the problem head-on,” said Jeff Newton, Chief of Police.

Great Falls Police Department Downtown Summer Safety Initiative

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