In response to Governor Greg Gianforte’s State of the State address, Attorney General Austin Knudsen issued the following statement:

“Governor Gianforte is right: Montanans are better off now than we were two years ago, but the threat of crime and drugs continues to grow after previous administrations ignored the issue for years. I appreciate his continued support for law enforcement and the needed resources for the Montana Department of Justice’s Highway Patrol, Division of Criminal Investigation, prosecution bureau, and MMIP task force to hold criminals accountable and keep Montanans safe.”

Some of the state’s most powerful law enforcement officers addressed the continued need for additional law enforcement and are in support of the requested legislative budget. They said the everyday need is great to step up the numbers of law enforcement officers in Montana. 

AG Knudsen said the money in the budget will fund human trafficking prevention, fight against illegal narcotics, bring down the number of major crimes and help with real-time arrests of hardened criminals by MHP troopers who may be on a routine pullover and discovered a wanted drug criminal.

They all spoke in support of continuing to fight drugs such as “rainbow fentanyl” and are in 100-percent support for the Governor’s and AG Knudsen request for monies to fund more law enforcement officers in the future.