BELT — Belt might be a small town and a tight-knit community, but like any other place, law and order remains important. Logan Livingston is entering his second year after being selected as Belt's resident deputy by the Cascade County Sheriff's Office.
Back in 2018, Cascade County commissioners approved a two-year contract agreement with the Sheriff’s Office to provide law enforcement services to the Belt community for about 20 hours per week. When that contract ended, the resident deputy program was initiated; the resident deputy lives and works full-time in Belt.
Livingston said the experience has been very positive: "It's been fantastic, the city of Belt is very pro law enforcement, and they've been very receptive to this position."
Livingston lived in Great Falls all of his life, but with a new opportunity comes a few changes. "It's a smaller community, and with the smaller community, the people that live here really care about their town and what happens in it."
When asked about how policing in a small community like Belt compares to a larger one like Great Falls, he explained, "It doesn't really change from a smaller community to a bigger community, you're going to have the same type of crime. However, the volume of the same type of crime is going to be different."
He added, "Policing in a community that's a little bit smaller where everybody cares about what happens in that community, you have a lot more willing witnesses for an event and people willing to talk to about that event."
Livingston said that his term as resident deputy is a three-year contract, ending in 2024, and he can re-apply to continue for another three years.
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