At a recent Trego-Fortine-Stryker meeting, I went in with questions.
One of those questions was simple:
Are firefighters being given criminal background checks?
The answer I received was that TFS has a background-check policy.
That answer is true as far as the existence of a policy today.
But there is more to the story.
The Policy Is New
Based on the records I have reviewed so far, TFS formally adopted its background-check policy on February 10, 2026.
That means this is not a policy that has been in place for many years.
It is about six months old.
That immediately raises another question:
What happened before February 2026?
From the information currently available to me, I have not found evidence of a formal TFS policy before February 2026 requiring every firefighter to successfully complete a criminal background check.
There is also an important difference between someone signing paperwork saying they agree to a background check and proof that the background check was actually performed.
Those are not the same thing.
What I Asked at the Meeting
During the meeting, I specifically asked about the difference between bylaws and policies.
I asked whether criminal background checks would be handled through a policy.
The answer was yes.
I was told:
“We have policy addressing those.”
A little later, the issue came up again.
A board member was looking through information I had brought concerning the proposed bylaws. He said there were misconceptions in the material, specifically mentioning background checks.
He stated that information concerning background checks was “absolutely untrue” and said:
“We have a policy for background checks.”
He also explained that background checks were not part of the bylaws because the bylaws are the board’s governance document.
On that point, I agree.
A background-check requirement does not necessarily have to appear in the bylaws.
It can be established through policy.
But knowing that a policy exists does not answer the bigger questions.
What Does Montana Require?
This part needs to be explained carefully because not every Montana fire organization is legally structured the same way.
Montana has a law called MCA 7-33-4107.
It is found in the section of Montana law governing municipal fire departments.
For firefighter applicants covered by that law, the requirements are significant.
An applicant must be at least 18, meet education and driver’s-license requirements, pass the required physical examination, and be fingerprinted.
Those fingerprints must be checked against local, state and national fingerprint records to look for a criminal history.
The law also addresses criminal convictions.
Generally, certain serious convictions can prevent an applicant from qualifying.
However, current Montana law gives a fire chief some discretion to allow an applicant with a misdemeanor or felony conviction to qualify.
There is an important exception.
A fire chief cannot use that discretion to approve an applicant whose conviction requires that person to register on Montana’s sexual or violent offender registry.
But Trego-Fortine-Stryker Is Different
This distinction matters.
Trego-Fortine-Stryker is a Fire Service Area, or FSA.
Lincoln County records show that the Trego/Fortine/Stryker Fire Service Area was created under Montana’s Fire Service Area law.
County records also explain that the FSA and the Trego-Fortine-Stryker Volunteer Fire Department are not exactly the same organization.
The FSA has its own board.
The volunteer fire department has its own organization and board.
The Fire Service Area contracts with the volunteer fire department to provide fire protection.
That means I am not going to tell readers that Montana’s municipal-firefighter background-check law automatically applies to TFS in exactly the same way without documentation establishing that.
What Happens After Someone Is Hired?
That would be getting ahead of the facts.
But there is something else we know.
The Montana State Fire Marshal specifically encourages all Montana fire departments to submit firefighter-applicant fingerprints through the state’s criminal-history system, even though the statutory requirement specifically applies to municipal fire departments.
And I have been told that TFS is using Montana’s standards as the basis for its new background-check policy.
That is why I want to see the actual policy.
The Questions That Remain
The February policy is now roughly six months old.
So here is what I believe the public has a right to understand:
Does the February 2026 policy apply to every firefighter currently serving, or only people who apply after the policy was adopted?
Were firefighters who were already on the roster in February required to undergo background checks?
Were officers required to do so?
Was the fire chief required to do so?
What about members of the volunteer fire department’s board?
Does the policy require fingerprints, or only a name-based records search?
Are local, Montana and national records checked?
What happens when a criminal record is found?
Who makes the final decision?
Is that decision written down?
And perhaps one of the biggest questions:
How do we know the checks were actually completed?
I am not asking for anyone’s private criminal-background report to be made public.
I am asking whether TFS can document that the people entrusted with serving the public have actually completed whatever screening its own policy requires.
There is a major difference.
There is another problem that deserves discussion.
A background check only tells you what was known when the check was performed.
Someone could pass a background check today and be arrested or convicted of a serious crime two years from now.
So does TFS ever check again?
At this point, I have not seen documentation establishing that current firefighters are periodically re-screened.
That does not necessarily mean they are not. It means I have not yet been shown evidence that they are.
That is exactly the kind of question this reporting is intended to answer.
Why This Matters
This isn’t about paperwork for the sake of paperwork.
Firefighters go into people’s homes.
They encounter children.
They encounter elderly people.
They encounter injured and unconscious people.
They may arrive when a person is alone, frightened or unable to protect themselves.
When someone arrives wearing a firefighter’s uniform, most of us assume that the organization behind that uniform has already done the checking.
We assume the person has been vetted.
We shouldn’t have to conduct our own investigation while our house is burning.
And that is why the history of TFS background checks matters.
If the department did not have a formal background-check policy until February 2026, the community deserves to understand what screening occurred before that date.
If the new policy applies only to new applicants, the community deserves to know that.
If existing members were also screened, TFS should be able to say so.
If fingerprint checks are being conducted, that can be explained.
If they are not, that should also be explained.
These are not accusations.
They are questions.
And recent events involving people associated with the fire service make those questions more important, not less.
For this preliminary article, I am deliberately not reaching conclusions about who failed, who knew what, or whether any individual should or should not have been allowed to serve.
There are still records to obtain and people to interview.
But one fact is already clear:
The public cannot judge whether the current system is adequate until the public understands what that system actually is.
TFS now has a background-check policy.
The next step is finding out exactly what it requires, who it covers, whether it was applied to people already serving, and whether there is a system to make sure those entrusted with the public remain worthy of that trust.
Those are fair questions.
And I intend to keep asking them.
© Amberli Emery
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