MSU PD helps out rural fire departments

The MSU Police Department (UPD) worked in conjunction with the Bozeman Police (BPD) and Fire Departments (BFD) last fall to support rural fire departments in Gallatin County. A few years ago, the county updated its radio infrastructure and left the smaller, rural departments worried that they might be without proper communication platforms. The MSU and Bozeman departments were able to donate used radio equipment to the rural departments across the county to help with the costliness of the new technology.

Bozeman interim chief of police, Jim Veltkamp, emphasized the importance of communication between departments and the relief it would provide to the teams. This past fall, UPD, BPD and BFD were able to donate over 90 portable radios and over 57 mobile radios with the help of the 911 Center in Gallatin County. These radios were donated to several departments across the county including the Three Forks Fire Department, Fort Ellis Fire Department, Gallatin Gateway Rural Fire Department, Manhattan Volunteer Fire Department,  Amsterdam Rural Fire Department, Willow Creek Fire Department and Gallatin Search and Rescue.

“In emergency services, all first responders work together and we never know when we could be dealing with a very small rural department on a big incident,” Veltkamp told MSU News Service.

MSU Police Department, Bozeman Police Department and Bozeman Fire Department all have one thing in common, which is to put the safety of the Bozeman community above all else. “It’s great to see the community mindset and have a collaboration between the departments so we can come to the common goal of keeping Gallatin County safe,” said Tim Martindale, director of the Gallatin County 911 Center, to MSU News Service. The collaboration of the university and the city has strengthened the security and safety of the community as a whole.