Dave Perry, a cop at heart

When Dave Perry was a teenager he didn’t think much of high school.

Typical teenager. You know. Algebra? Whatamigonnausethatfor?

Perry also found his fair share of trouble. Nothing major. Dumb stuff like stealing cans so he could turn them in for the deposit and then use the money to buy stuff.

“I was little scoundrel,” Perry said with a smile in a recent interview.

Kids back then left the house at 8 a.m. and didn’t come home until 4 p.m.

“Parents assumed you were at the pool,” he said.

Columbia Falls was a hopping place back then. There were 1,800 guys working at the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. plant, plus there were five lumber mills.

Nucleus Avenue was a busy place. Bars were full. Shops did well.

And at the age of 16 Perry started riding around with the cops at night. It was something to do. It was fun. And with that many men at work, there was lots of action.

In July 1978, at the age of 18, he joined the Columbia Falls Reserve Officers — a volunteer group that helps out the regular police force at large events, like football games, parades.

College wasn’t for Perry. He started his own business — a security company that went around to businesses and checked on them three times a night. It was a good way to make a living. At one point, he had 60 businesses he was keeping an eye on.

But in 1990 he joined the Columbia Falls police as a patrolman. There was no interview, he recalled. He’d been a reserve officer for so long, he just got the job.

Three years later he was a patrol sergeant, in 1994 was named assistant chief and later that year, then city manager Roger Hopkins fired then chief Greg Dawson.

At 7 p.m. Perry’s phone rang.

“You’re the acting chief,” Hopkins told Perry.

“Talk about anxiety,” Perry recalled. Budgets. Payroll. Crime. It was all in his lap all at once. Boy, he wished he paid more attention in algebra.

He’s been sitting in the chief’s chair ever since. Fifteen years now. As near as he can tell, he’s the longest sitting police chief in Montana. This is his 20th year with the Columbia Falls Police.

He’s seen plenty of crimes. Some stick out more than others.

There was the gay man who shot his lover with a shotgun at point blank range in Pinewood Park. There was a convicted felon who molested two young boys.

Today, a forensic specialist would interview the victims in the molestation case. Back then, Perry had to do it.

It was unpleasant, to put it mildly. In both cases, the perpetrators are behind bars.

Perry went into the job with zero training, so he sought professional help — he’s gone through 400 hours of administrative leadership training.

“That’s my biggest achievement,” he said.

Today, Perry said he’s proud of the work Columbia Falls police do.

“I have a great staff. They respect me and I respect the job they do,” he said.

Perry is single and at age 51, has no plans to retire. He relaxes by taking walks in Glacier National Park, traveling.

He still has his worries. The town is far quieter than it used to be. He wonders about its future as big businesses leave. CFAC is shut down. Only two mills remain and those have seen layoffs in recent years.

Alcohol and drugs are still problems and prescription drug abuse “has gone through the ceiling.”

New technology has made day-to-day life more difficult, not easier, he said. In the old days, an officer pulled up a typewriter and filed a report. Now it takes an hour and a half on a computer to fill out all the forms. A county-wide consolidated 911 system forced the local dispatch to shut down. The city jail is now closed. Police have to transfer prisoners to the county jail in Kalispell.

“Hours they could be on patrol,” he said.

It’s the lament of a cop at heart.