Shawback named deputy of the year

Sgt. Logan Shawback of the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office has been named deputy of the year by the Kalispell Lions Club. The honor was based on a recommendation from Commander of the Northwestern Drug Task Force Mark Mulcahy.

“I don’t deserve this anymore than anyone else does,” said Shawback. “I just did my job.”

Shawback was an agent with the Task Force responsible for investigating drug-related crimes Flathead, Lake, Glacier, Sanders, Lincoln and Mineral counties.

Shawback has worked with the Sheriff’s Office for 12 years. For 10 of those years he has been a member of the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) Team. When the position became available he applied because he was interested in a role other than patrol, something more specifically related to investigations. What he did not expect was the way those two years would affect how he does his job, and how he is leading his shift of deputies.

Shawback’s term on the Drug Task Force concluded in January when he was promoted to the rank of sergeant and took over leading one of the six shifts of deputies on patrol. As he has returned to patrolling the streets of Flathead County, Shawback made note of a change in his perspective of people.

“On the Task Force I learned that people who are addicts are not necessarily bad people. They are just addicts. That addiction can cause them to do some very bad things, but that alone does not mean they are a bad person. Don’t get me wrong: some addicts are also bad people, but not all. When I give talks to students about drugs and I think of the people I have had the opportunity to help, I refer to some of them as friends,” said Shawback.

Help is an interesting term when combining the subjects of law enforcement and drug user. But Shawback said he tries to help people work through the legal process while keeping their dignity. Sometimes the help has been as simple as giving a person a ride out of a bad situation. After all, he says, that is what a friend would do.

Shawback said he tries to take things at face value. Before, he might have assumed or made decisions based on a typical criminal profile. Now he says he is less judgmental, and more patient and compassionate.

“In general, there are slots that people fit into,” said Shawback. “And it can be easy to give weight to common traits.”

For Shawback, the most important thing he learned working on the Task Force is the importance of a “bigger picture perspective.”

“A deputy on patrol can easily get into a mindset of, these are my streets, my community, my town and fail to be thinking much beyond the crime that is happening right in front of them,” said Shawback. “Our job has to be about more than just our patrol routes and our corner of the community. We have to be aware of how our choices work with other divisions and mechanisms within the law enforcement structure. So a deputy on patrol needs to be thinking about how his or her choices might affect not just the case in their hands, but also the Task Force, Special Investigations, detectives, out-of-state agencies, federal agencies. We all need to work together.”

For Shawback, the award seems to make him a little uncomfortable because it singles him out. He refuses to think of it as an individual award based on his individual effort.

He stresses that none of this would have been possible without the team of investigators and the leadership assigned to the Task Force during his two years on that assignment.

“I didn’t achieve these things,” said Shawback. “We achieved them. I didn’t make these cases. We did.”