Weston awarded Montana Law Enforcement Officer of Year

By his own admission, Detective Brad Weston of the Ravalli County Sheriff’s Office is “pretty well known” here in the valley. That statement is true for many reasons, and it’s not just in the valley that Weston is well known. The former Hamilton High School athlete, University of Montana football player, basketball referee has been in the spotlight since he was a teen. Recently, another honor was added to his list of accomplishments. Weston was recently awarded the American Legion Law Enforcement Officer of the Year for Montana. 

Weston was nominated for the award by Sheriff Steve Holton last fall. Weston was then interviewed by Randy Beard of American Legion Post 91 in Corvallis. They covered the many aspects of Weston’s law enforcement career in the interview. 

“Most officers have a specialty niche,” said Weston. “I would say that my niche is people. I love people and know a lot of people here in the valley.”

Weston was a member of the 1997 Hamilton Bronc football team that won the state championship. He grew up around football in the valley as his father, Steve Weston, was the football coach in Darby and then in Hamilton. He made a lot of connections here in the valley because of his involvement and his dad’s involvement in football. 

After high school graduation, Weston attended the University of Montana on a full ride football scholarship. His dream was always to become a police officer and so he majored in sociology and criminology. After graduation, he and his wife, Nikki, moved to Seattle where she was finishing medical school. Weston got a job as a security officer in a hospital there. 

“It was a huge eye opener,” said Weston. “I had traveled a lot in college and seen a lot of things but I saw every walk of life in that hospital, from a rock star to a gang shooter to someone having mental issues, and all within a few minutes. I learned to communicate and it made me grow.”

When the Westons returned to Montana, he became an officer with the Hamilton Police Department. He was there for six years. During that time, he was a patrolman, a field training officer, and a school resource officer. He said as the school resource officer, he was a liaison between youth court, Department of Family Services, the students and the school. He said he was able to see the students’ perspective and build a trust with them.

In 2013, Weston moved over to the Sheriff’s Office where he has come up through the ranks. As a deputy, one of his areas to patrol was the south valley. He said he would talk with someone there and bring up that he was Steve Weston’s son, and the conversation would take off from there. He moved up to patrol sergeant, and also served as the coroner for a while. 

He recently was promoted to a detective and for the first time in 10 years, he’s working days. 

“My wife was a single mom during this time,” said Weston. “I went to work at RCSO in early January of 2013 and our twins were born two weeks later. We had four kids under four at that time and I was working nights.”

He said he would work all night, come home and get the kids off to daycare or school and then sleep for a few hours during the day. He’d pick up the kids and spend time with them, usually on a football field or a baseball field where he was also the coach, and then right after dinner head out to work, leaving his wife to handle the four kids. The kids are Cooper, Rigby, Saige, and Sloane. 

“She’s a saint,” he said. “She is the one who made it work, while working full time as a family nurse practitioner at the Family Medicine Center (in Hamilton).” 

Weston said being a detective has brought new challenges for him. When he was a patrolman, he went into a call with the idea of assessing the problem, defusing the problem, and possibly making an arrest. As a detective, he is now having to go through the process of building a case to solve a crime. But he’s up for the challenge. Throughout his law enforcement career, he has worked through almost every aspect of law enforcement but the management end of it. 

Through it all, he’s relied upon his identity and his communication skills to make a connection with victims, perpetrators, other officers, and the community. He concluded by saying that working in law enforcement helps people and he loves that.