Updated at 11 a.m. April 26

City Manager Greg Doyon is hoping to announce the next Great Falls Police Department chief this week.

He said during the April 20 City Commission meeting that the three candidates, Capt. Rob Moccasin, Capt. Jeff Newton and Lt. Doug Otto, had participated in multiple interview panels with city leadership, community members and Neighborhood Council representatives.

Doyon said that he was conducting additional background checks and deliberating and hoped to make a decision and an announcement this week.

He said April 26 that he’d make the announcement at 2 p.m.

City establishes special panel to study crime

Doyon told commissioners that he hadn’t had time to develop a list of recommended members for the crime task force the commission established earlier in April. He said he does intend to recommend the police chief and a commissioner to be among the task force’s seven members. He’d been giving suggestions including the sheriff, neighborhood councils, representatives from the judiciary, business community, legislators, mental health, behavioral health, social services and more.

Crime study committee on April 6 Commission agenda

“The reality is we’re not going to be able to accommodate most of those requests,” he said.

City discusses creation of crime task force

He told commissioners that he’d recommend to the task force early on and ask them to identify entities they’d live to have partnerships with and that the task force’s meetings would be open to the public so those with an interest can attend. Those meetings will likely be afternoons on Tuesdays or Thursdays, Doyon said, since the group will need staff support.

Mental health, crime focus of multiple agencies

He said he’ll also recommend that the task force gets the same briefings from law enforcement that he and Commissioner Rick Tryon heard while developing the task force structure so that they can understand the issues related to crime in the city.

The committee will make recommendations to the city manager and Commission by September and then be disbanded.

Doyon said he hopes to have a list of recommended members for the May 4 meeting.