Provided by the Montana Highway Patrol social media feed on Facebook.
Two Democratic state lawmakers have sent a letter to Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen demanding a response to morale problems in a climate survey that was conducted throughout the Montana Highway Patrol, which showed substantial distrust and unease with how the office managed the statewide law enforcement agency.
The letter, authored by Rep. Tom France, D-Missoula, and Sen. Jen Gross, D-Billings, also asked the Attorney General’s Office to officially rescind a cease-and-desist letter sent to the Daily Montanan after it obtained and published the survey.
The Montana Attorney General’s Office did not immediately respond when contacted Friday.
The Montana Highway Patrol survey was conducted by a third-party firm and “anonymized” by the company so that few, if any names, are tied to comments. Troopers in leadership at the Montana Highway Patrol said that they were concerned that other members would not participate due to concerns about retribution.
The overall results showed that nearly 80% of the troopers participated in the anonymous survey, and nearly half, or 45%, were not optimistic about the direction of the Montana Highway Patrol. Even more, “leadership effectiveness” was given an average score of 6.1 out of 10. Many of the comments of the survey focused on the leadership of the organization, extending all the way to Knudsen himself, as well as a concerns about how human resources were handled.
The survey is part of a growing collection of employees and ex-employees dissatisfied with the leadership of the department, including two high-profile troopers whose careers ended abruptly. One case, Zach Miller, was terminated because he had asked for mental health support. Miller eventually agreed with the department on a disability settlement. The other case involved trooper Alicia Bragg who, as a union leader, brought concerns of her fellow members forward to union leadership, but she was soon after terminated because the department said she did not follow protocol.
However, an investigator with the Montana Department of Labor and Industry has found there’s probable cause for a wrongful termination case, and validated that she likely experienced retaliation. Her case is still active.
“Many respondents felt that good performance is going unrecognized and unrewarded, expressed alarm over plummeting morale, and pointed to experienced officers leaving MHP,” the letter from the two lawmakers said.
Gross and France said in the letter that they were concerned that Knudsen is more worried with the details of the survey getting out than he appears to be in answering the questions raised by the results.
“While the survey was conducted in early February, there has been no response to its findings by either your office or by MHP leadership,” the letter said. “Instead of a plan for addressing the serious issues raised by the survey’s findings, your office has apparently sought to suppress the report, punish officers trying to improve the agency and attack media outlets for releasing the report’s findings.”
France and Gross want Knudsen and the agency to issue a response to the findings and are requesting a plan for “addressing problems with agency morale, trooper retention and re-establishing trust between MHP’s front-line troopers and the agency’s leaders, including the Attorney General’s office.”
France and Gross are in the minority party in their respective chambers, and it is unclear whether their request has the support of the Republican supermajority. Responses from Senate Republican leaders weren’t immediately available on Friday.
The duo also hinted at making a change that would essentially rewind the clock.
At one point, the Montana Highway Patrol was overseen by an appointed board, and not under the umbrella of the Montana Department of Justice, which includes things like the Attorney General’s Office, but also the state’s crime laboratories and the Montana Peace Officer Standards and Training board.
“We would ask you to consider such changes in your response,” the lawmakers said.
They also defended the media publication of the report and asked that Knudsen’s office rescind the cease-and-desist letter “to avoid frivolous litigation that will result in more taxpayer dollars being wasted.”
“Not only does this information fall under Montana’s constitutional right to know, but Montana taxpayers paid for the study and deserve to have access to the findings,” the letter said. “The Daily Montanan announced they would not be pulling the published report for their website, and we don’t believe they should either.”
This spring, the DOJ paid $44,950 to the author of the report, Eric Murray, president of Team Training Associates for education/training, according to state online records.
France and Gross ask that the Department of Justice issue a public response before Sept. 30 on how the department will address the concerns and recommendations of the survey.
“We’re hopeful that implementing the Montana Highway Patrol Organizational Climate Assessment recommendations will improve the culture at MHP and no additional tax dollars will be spent on unnecessary lawsuits,” the letter concludes.
Deputy editor Keila Szpaller contributed to this report.