How to build a police department

To say the East Helena Police Department was a shambles as 2022 began would be a major understatement. Following the chief’s ouster in the wake of charges of distributing child pornography, all the deputies resigned. The budget was a mess and many standard police processes like custody of evidence and security had long ago fallen by the wayside.

East Helena, in essence, had no police department – which is when Mike Sanders got a call asking him to take on the task of building a new one that could regain the community’s trust.

A longtime former officer of the Helena PD, and briefly East Helena’s police chief in 2018-19, Sanders had recently retired from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to manage security for the Montana Lottery. His wife had doubts about the East Helena job, but Sanders felt the call.