From a burgeoning population to thinly spread resources, the challenges of policing the vast unincorporated areas of Flathead County are myriad.

Encompassing more than 5,250 square miles, Flathead County is the second largest county in Montana and is home to roughly 91,000 people. Of that, the cities of Kalispell, Whitefish and Columbia Falls account for less than 26 square miles and about 33,000 residents.

That leaves more than 58,000 people and 5,225 square miles — roughly 64 percent of the county population and more than 99 percent of its geography — under the auspices of the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office.

That non-centralization of the population is what Sheriff Chuck Curry says puts a bigger strain and demand on his office.

“Flathead County has the highest unincorporated population in the state,” Curry said. “When they break it down to officers per number of population, we are number 56 out of 56 counties.”

Taking the size and population of the county into context with the six or seven deputies on each patrol shift, that means each deputy is proportionally responsible for about 9,000 residents and 800 square miles. The only exception is during an overlap between shifts from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m., designed to help handle the larger volume of calls during that time.

Further affecting how thinly Curry must spread his deputies is the skyrocketing volume of calls, much more pronounced than the growth in population.

As far back as the late 1980s, the Sheriff’s Office was seeing year-to-year growth in calls measured in the thousands. In 1987, for example, the office received 10,071 calls for service, climbing to 12,707 the following year.

That trend has not slowed, but accelerated.

In 2011, the office received 32,126 calls. In 2012 that number had climbed to 36,600. As of the afternoon of Feb. 8, the office already had received 3,332 calls in 2013.

THE SHERIFF’S office handles the disparity between the number of patrol deputies and size of jurisdiction by splitting the county into three regions — the north zone, south zone and local zone.

The north zone includes the general area from Whitefish to West Glacier north of the airport. The south zone includes the area along Lakeside, Bigfork and Ferndale south. The local or greater Kalispell area includes everything between Thompson River Road and Lake Blaine.

“We assign areas of responsibility for each deputy for each day,” Curry said. “That’s not to say that the day’s events won’t change that frequently. If there’s a gun call in Bigfork and a suicide attempt in Lakeside and something happening west of Kalispell and there’s currently nothing happening in the north end, we may shift those areas of responsibility just for coverage and safety.”

Curry said his office does whatever it has to in order to cover calls in what is a very large geographic area, but that doing their best doesn’t stop questions from residents.

“People always ask, ‘What’s your response time?’ and my answer to that is it depends,” he said. “It depends on what is happening elsewhere in the county in that given minute and where my deputies are at that given minute. That changes based upon need.”

In addition to trying to make the public happy with the level of service, Curry is also fenced in by how far he can push deputies before they have nothing else to give.

“You still have labor rules and laws and regulations, and you can only get so creative with people’s schedules and lives before they just won’t work,” Curry said. “We’ve looked at area assignment options and have visited pretty much any idea that anybody’s come up with. The bottom-line answer is we do on a daily basis the best we can with what we’ve got.”

DESPITE the challenges, Curry has no immediate plans to push for more patrol deputies.

“It’s not always a popular thing to bring up and request,” Curry said. “Certainly I think we’ll be visiting that again, but are we understaffed? Probably not.”

He explained that while the ratio of patrol deputies to residents and geographic area are challenging, the other departments have adequate staffing. At most, Curry said he would like another drug officer and one more patrol deputy per shift.

But any additional staff comes with a significant cost.

“As in any organization it’s not the cars, it’s not the equipment, it’s not the guns or any of those things that truly cost the money, it’s the personnel expense,” Curry said. “That’s the largest slice of the pie when it comes to my budget.”

Curry’s budget for fiscal year 2013 is roughly $9.4 million. He argues that $1 million of that should immediately be ignored as far as his office costs are concerned since it goes directly to the 911 Dispatch Center. Of the remaining $8.4 million, more than $5.8 million goes to personnel, or more than 62 percent of the total budget.

“That percent stays relatively consistent,” Curry said. “It’s varied by less than half a percent in the last two years.”

He also noted that his office is just one of many trying to do what they can from the same pot of money.

“There’s lots of agencies, these are tough economic times and no one wants to pay more taxes,” he said.

But one bright spot remains. When positions in his office do open up, there is no shortage of talented, qualified applicants. Curry said the last opening brought responses from nearly 100 applicants.

“We always have good quality applicants,” Curry said. “I think we’ve got a good agency and it’s an agency that people want to work at.”

Reporter Jesse Davis may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at jdavis@dailyinterlake.com.