GREAT FALLS — Cascade County Sheriff Jesse Slaughter says he is working to improve the pay for deputies. Slaughter says that a deputy's salary is significantly less than nearby law enforcement agencies, and he wants the salary raised in order to compete and attract new deputies.
He explained, "We are far lower than most law enforcement agencies for our size. For example, here in town, the Great Falls Police Department. On average, a police officer makes over 20 thousand a year more than the deputy sheriffs, so that's a significant amount. We've lost a couple of deputies to the Great Falls Police Department, so those are the reasons we really need to get a raise for retention."
Slaughter said, "We need to show our community, we will fund law enforcement, we care. Having good law enforcement, having deputy sheriffs out there protecting you and your Constitutional rights is really important in this community, and I know we have community support, but we just need to make sure we get the commissioner support to get our people raises."
Slaughter continued, "I'm an anticipatory leader, and I want to get ahead of this problem. And I want to make sure we are retaining and keeping good people here."
