By Jack Reaney ASSOCIATE EDITOR
On Aug. 9, former President Donald Trump visited Montana and hosted a rally at Montana State University in Bozeman. An Aug. 30 press release from the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office praised county-wide first responders for helping ensure a safe event, and announced the extra costs incurred due to overtime work from Gallatin County peace officers.
Those extra costs totaled $62,557.38 across five agencies, according to the press release. In a follow-up email to EBS, the sheriff’s office confirmed its message from an Aug. 1 press release: “Neither the campaigns nor the federal government pay for any of the services local first responders provide for these visits. However, we have built-in contingencies in our budgets for events just like this.”
The Aug. 30 release declared that the event “went off safely due to the diligent collaboration between local, state and federal law enforcement and other first responder agencies.”
That collaboration included overtime hours resulting in extra costs for Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office, Bozeman Police and Fire departments, Montana State University Police and the Belgrade Police Department.
The Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office incurred extra costs of $23,170.22.
The City of Bozeman incurred $20,034.50, split primarily between the Bozeman Police Department—which incurred $17,170.22 in personnel costs—and the Bozeman Fire Department—which incurred $2,862.13. The remaining $77.97 was used for food for the motorcade team.
The MSU Police Department incurred $12,783.30, which includes $3,680.02 for food and water provided to all first responders supporting the event.
The Belgrade Police Department incurred $6,569.36 in personnel costs due to the event.
The release explained that when a candidate protected by U.S. Secret Service visits, the candidate’s campaign does not request additional law enforcement “and therefore [is] not financially responsible.”
Instead, the Secret Service requests assistance from local law enforcement through mutual aid.
“The Secret Service is specific in their needs and requests, and it is our responsibility to meet those needs to keep our community safe,” the release stated.
In a follow-up statement emailed to EBS, Sheriff Dan Springer explained that in addition to aforementioned budget contingencies, Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office has annual budget for overtime pay that covers unexpected incidents and events such as fires, parades, rodeos, fairs, homicides and searches. Another source of funding is the salaries that are retained from unfilled positions—GCSO currently has 18 total positions open, 13 from the county detention center and five deputy roles.
Funding details may differ for the City of Bozeman, MSU and Belgrade police departments, according to GCSO.
“Our community’s safety is always our top priority, and during President Trump’s visit, we had excellent coordination among all of our law enforcement agencies,” Sheriff Springer stated in the release. “We are grateful for the professionalism and cooperation from all agencies.”
