By GRAHAM BROOKS / Staff Writer

HELENA – Schools within Helena will soon have another resource officer available for any one of its campuses thanks to the Helena City Council approving a request to add a Compact 2020 officer at the Monday, Feb. 11 City Council meeting.

Compact 2020 serves Shelby County in a variety of ways through three organizational divisions: Education, prevention and intervention, the community liaison team and the drug enforcement task force.

The education, prevention and intervention division works to identify potential problems in the early stages and to help prevent them from escalating to addiction, incarceration, or other negative consequences.

The community liaison team is involved in all aspects of the community: schools, businesses, government offices, medical facilities and drug stores in order to better understand the nature of the drug epidemic within each community.

The drug enforcement task force’s mission is to create an environment free of illegal drugs within Shelby County and its communities, schools and places of work.

Helena Mayor Mark Hall was in favor of the request to place an extra Compact 2020 officer in Helena, citing it will improve the safety of Helena schools.

“This is something we discussed about adding an officer to this task force so we want to participate in that to receive some of the benefits for our schools,” Hall said. “We’re talking about it being a half of a year funding option this time from the money we get back from the county and the grant we have. We also have sufficient funds in our one-cent fund to do that for our school security program we do now. I think it would be a great benefit, and I’ve talked to the chief at length about it, especially about the mental health option coming available and public education.”

The approval now allows Helena Police Chief Pete Folmar to hire a new officer for the streets while training an existing officer for the Compact 2020 role.

At a Governance Council luncheon in October of last year, Shelby County Sheriff John Samaniego called Compact 2020 “one of the most aggressive and on-point efforts” to combat drug use and urged continued support.

“It has grown, and we need to keep growing it,” Samaniego said.

The number of Shelby County deaths due to drugs ranged from 29 to 36 from 2012 through 2017, while in 2018 the number was nine with 10 pending toxicology reports to determine cause of death at the time of the luncheon last October.

Meanwhile, the Shelby County Drug Enforcement Task Force handled 433 investigations in 2017 and had already handled 709 in 2018.