Tim Leeds Havre Daily News tleeds@havredailynews.com
Havre has a new interim police chief. Mayor Bob Rice appointed Havre Police Department veteran Jerry Nystrom to the position this week. “I just felt it was the appropriate time for me to make that move, based on experience and the wealth of things I have learned in the past years of running the (Tri-Agency Safe Trails) Task Force,” Nystrom said Thursday about applying for the position. Rice said that the interview Nystrom gave to the four-member committee making the selection gave him a slight edge over the other two candidates, although all were highly qualified and all did well in the interview. “The four on the committee were all in agreement with the decision that he was probably the No. 1 candidate,” Rice said. Assistant Chief Stan Martin and Senior Staff Sergeant Bill Wilkinson were the other candidates interviewed, he said. Rice said he is still considering ideas brought to him by the public, and doesn’t want to make a permanent appointment at this time. “I’ve got some things I’ve got to clear up in my own mind,” Rice said, declining to comment on what the issues are. He said he doesn’t have a specific time frame for when he will make a final decision, and that he welcomes additional comments from the public about what people would like to see in a chief. Nystrom said he is interested in taking the position on a permanent basis, and Rice said that could be the final decision after he resolves the issues. Rice said he wanted to make sure someone was in place as head of the department while he makes that decision and attempts to create stability in the position, he said. “I gave him the interim position so we can get something going,” Rice said. Nystrom will be the fifth police chief for Havre this decade. After 32 years on the force and 13 as chief, Mike Shortell retired in August 2000. He was replaced by Kevin Olson, his assistant chief, who left in February 2004 to head the Montana Law Enforcement Academy in Helena. Assistant Chief Mike Barthel was next appointed chief, serving until May 31, 2007, when he retired and took a job as a state probation And parole officer in Havre. His assistant chief, George Tate, then took the position until he left April 11 to take a position with the state’s Department of Justice Gambling Control Division. Rice then appointed himself acting interim chief until he appointed Nystrom, effective Thursday. Rice supplied opinions written by state Attorney General Joe Mazurek in 1996 and 1999 he said shows he has the authority to make those appointments. In 1999, Mazurek wrote an opinion stating that the mayor of a community is the chief law enforcement administrator in a community with a mayor-city council type of government. In 1996 Mazurek wrote that, if no city ordinance to the contrary exists, a mayor in that type of government can appoint an officer in the force to serve in an administrative position, specifically assistant chief of police. Nystrom brings a long history in law enforcement to the position. In 1988 he became a reserve deputy for the Hill County Sheriff’s office, and a year later he started his two years as a full deputy. He then entered the private sector working at the Ford-New Holland implement dealership. He soon decided he shouldn’t have left the field, he added. “After a few years, all I wanted to do was get back into law enforcement,” Nystrom said. He started with the Havre Police Department in 1993, and then started working on the the Tri-Agency Safe Trails Task Force, then named the Tri- Agency Drug Task Force. Nystrom leaves the task force as its team leader and supervisor of its investigation activities. He said what he has learned about different levels of government, local, state and federal, and coordinating activities between different groups of law enforcement will serve him well as police chief. The task force incorporates representatives of city and county law enforcement from Hill, Blaine and Chouteau counties and the Federal Bureau of Investigations to investigate the manufacture and trafficking of drugs in the counties and on Rocky Boy’s and the Fort Belknap Indian reservations. “I have gained a broad range of experience and knowledge of how city law enforcement works, how the FBI works, how county law enforcement works ” Nystrom said. “It’s kind of like running a little mini-PD in itself.” Rice said a key to selecting Nystrom as interim chief was his desire to improve relations between the Havre Police Department and the Havre community. “He had some visions, and if you don’t have some visions of the future you get complacent,” Rice said. Nystrom said that while he doesn’t think the relations the department has with the community are a major problem now, he thinks improvements can be made. “I have a goal to establish a partnership with the community ” he said. “The community has to feel it’s taking an active role, and, you know, it starts with them.” He said what actions he will take to improve that community partnership haven’t been decided yet, and he wants to work with the other members of the department to make those decisions. “I have a lot of ideas, but the final plan isn’t in place yet,” Nystrom said. He concluded by saying he wants to give back something he has learned to the community. “This is my hometown,” Nystrom said. “This is where I grew up; I’m proud of my department and I’m proud of my community and it’s time to step up to the plate.”
