McKenna Dickey reports - watch:
According to the Great Falls Police Department, the number of 911 calls made for the downtown area has seen a slight decrease over recent years.
In 2023, there were 7,393 calls; that number dropped to 6,263 calls in 2024. So far in 2025, there have been 2,554 calls.
“There's just a layered problem that we're facing, and we're working through those issues to try to address the issues that are focused in the downtown areas, problems that we're having,” explained Doug Otto, patrol captain with GFPD.
The slight decrease in downtown disturbances may be partially attributed to the Downtown Safety Alliance (DSA) and what they're doing.
“They've put a lot of effort over the years into improving downtown and so we're focused on wanting to make sure that we give the enforcement efforts that are needed,” said Otto.
Kellie Pierce, board chair of the Downtown Development Partnership, said, “We just meet to find out who else needs to be at the table, what we can do, the issues that are coming up and to work with our police department, as that liaison.”
The main thing the DSA and the GFPD wants people to understand is that the homeless population isn’t necessarily the issue.
“Transients that are walking around, causing problems downtown, drinking in public, defecating in alleys, just misbehavior in general,” said Pierce. “We do have a homeless population that's semi different from the transient population; they're just unhoused. Typically, they are not the troublemakers.”
Otto added, “If they break the law, we're going to hold them accountable. It doesn't matter whoever it is, it's all equal. We're going to address the issues as they come up, whether they are a homeless transient or they're somebody that's a patron downtown, we address the issues as we see them.”
Going forward, the Great Falls Police Department plans to refocus their efforts more heavily on the downtown area. This may include more patrol officers downtown among other efforts to make downtown a safe place.
“If you see it, if it doesn’t feel right, if something’s weird, call it in. The police want to know about it; they can’t be everywhere all the time, and so it really does take a village to make things happen,” Pierce added.
The DSA meets on the first Tuesday of every month with the goal of mobilizing the community to participate in making downtown a safer place, while continuing to build downtown infrastructure.
The DSA is a sub-committee of the Downtown Development Partnership; for more information, click here.
