Sheriff’s Deputy Hsu serves and protects

by John Dowd

“I always think cops should have a selfless reason and a selfish reason for being in law enforcement,” said Deputy Thomas Hsu. Hsu has been with the Ravalli County Sheriff’s Office for four-and-a-half years, and said he loves what he does. He is a Patrol Corporal, a Field Training Officer (FTO), a member of the Missoula County/Ravalli County SWAT Team, a Ravalli County Sheriff’s Office Mounted Patrolman and a hostage negotiator. Even though he loves his job, he says some days can be difficult, and this goes back to his reasoning for staying on the job, and it is something he teaches to new deputies. 

Hsu said in his profession, law enforcement is often about catching people on their bad days. Even though he also says, “For most people it really is true that it feels good, helping someone else, and we’re lucky enough to do that every day,” there are still days it wears on a person. Not everyone is happy to see a member of law enfacement show up, and officers are generally responding to bad situations.

However, there is another side that drew Hsu into the career. He originally went to school to pursue higher education, and earned degrees in both English Literature and Psychology. He even attended grad school In Idaho. Eventually, he dropped out, saying he was feeling burnt out on academia. After deciding to try something else, he got into farming and ranching, taking a job with no experience, but added, “I was teachable.” He learned from the ground up, and enjoyed farming, but found that he really preferred the cattle side of agriculture. 

When describing the work, he said there is just nothing like it, riding and working on a horse in the open country. “It brings a person closer to God,” said Hsu. He said most of the places he would work were pretty remote, on big operations that covered thousands of miles. He fell in love with that feeling of openness and always being surrounded by nature and animals. In these spaces that were “unadultered by human plans,” Hsu said it was “sublime.”

He also resonated with the work ethic the job taught. “It’s all about being out there, getting your job done,” said Hsu. Without a lot of oversight, a lot of times the job, done right or wrong, would not hinder the ranch from operating. Hsu said it was usually just up to the person doing the work to know if they did it right, and when it was done right, it always helped the operation. Ranching taught him a lot about having a moral compass, honesty and knowing a person has done the job right for their own self. That really stuck with him and is something he carries into his job, now. 

However, the nature of working as a ranch hand being what it is, Hsu found that he needed something more sustainable and reliable than traveling around working on big cattle operations. This led to the experience that drove Hsu to law enforcement.

He was in South Dakota at that time, and was driving back from somewhere. He saw a deputy stopping traffic, and the reason became clear when Hsu witnessed the deputy carrying a huge tortoise off the road. “You know he didn’t have to do that,” but for Hsu, this showed that “this deputy cared about life in general.” That was the moment that pushed Hsu to look into a career in law enforcement. 

Hsu eventually found himself back in Montana, in the Bitterroot Valley. He started applying everywhere he could, seeking a job as an officer. He couldn’t go back to work in the city, and that call of nature and the open was still in his heart. He also found that he loved the community of the Bitterroot and he finally found himself hired on with the Ravalli County Sheriff’s Office. He said it felt like it was what he was supposed to be doing. 

“I take a lot of pride in policing the community I live in,” said Hsu. He is proud of this particular community, saying, “I don’t know if I’d be doing this,” in a different community, especially one less friendly toward law enforcement officers. Hsu added, “I just really want to thank this community for making this such a great place to live. The people we have here, they are good people.”

Hsu said a lot of people seem to forget that cops are people too. “That cop is probably your neighbor, or someone you‘d run into at the grocery store. We’re all just people, and we should look after each other, police or not,” added Hsu. All this goes back to Hsu’s philosophy on selfish and selfless reasons. 

As an FTO, Hsu often tells his trainees, “You really have to look out for yourself.” He explained that it can be easy to become jaded against other people, or to find oneself giving everything one has for the job, without regard for one’s own well-being.

According to Hsu, a person really only has so much mental energy. After some very long and hard days, a person can find him- or herself burnt out. Some days can chip away at that energy and a person’s patience. “Some days, you are just spent.” Things, both on the job and at home, can add up. This is why Hsu says a person needs both those reasons; sometimes, one of those reasons alone is not enough. 

Hsu’s selfless reason is his community. “This community has really welcomed me with open arms,” and a lot of times he can fall back on that reason, reminding himself of why he does this for others. 

But, on those tough days, Hsu said he has a selfish reason to fall back on. That reason is that he loves having a job that keeps him from being bored. Harkening back to the feelings of being out on the range, residing on a horse and watching the sun set, Hsu relishes the different day-to-day activities and being out and about. Providing a watchful eye on the community and being there to lend a hand reminds him of those moments working on a ranch. On the worst of days, he can fall back on the fact that he really can’t see himself loving anything else, doing anything else, as much as doing what he does right now.