City of St. Anthony welcomes new police chief

ST. ANTHONY — The city of St. Anthony has a new police chief who was sworn into the position last month.

Gregory, or “Greg” Belew, has officially been chief since Jan. 27.

Thad Garner, the previous chief, recently retired. Belew said the position was presented to him by St. Anthony Mayor Donald Powell.

“The mayor contacted me and said, ‘Hey, our chief is going to retire. Would you consider being my chief of police?’ And I said, ‘Sure!'” Belew told EastIdahoNews.com. “I’m excited.”

Belew is originally from Preston. He and his wife, Brenda, have four grown kids and some grandkids.

He has a total of 18 years of law enforcement experience.

“I started my law enforcement career in 1993 in Bannock County at the jail. Then, I went to Preston City (Police Department) for eight years,” Belew said.

He left law enforcement for a while to manage a ranch but came back and worked at the St. Anthony Police Department from 2016 to 2019. He spent time at the Soda Springs Police Department, too.

Belew previously served with K9 Mako, a drug-detection dog. Click here to read a past story.

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“I went to Ashton Police Department and I worked for Ashton just shy of three years until I came here in November,” he said.

When he was in Ashton, there were a total of three people in the police department. The St. Anthony Police Department has seven people, including Belew and a K9.

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“I think we have an outstanding group of officers, a very supportive mayor and city council,” Belew said. “I’m excited about the future and working with all of them to strengthen the community, public safety and trust and mutual respect.”

He told EastIdahoNews.com some of his goals for the department include being seen in the community and having the officers be well-rounded in what they do.

“My goals are based around building trust and strong relationships between the police force and the community by being visible, accessible, and responsive to their needs,” he said. “Ensure every resident feels heard and respected and protected, and one of my top priorities is officer training and development… then focus always on maintaining integrity and accountability and respect.”

Belew explained he likes helping people and one of his favorite parts about being in law enforcement is seeing the end results.

“We see a lot of stuff we shouldn’t see, but there’s a lot of stuff that is satisfying… to be able to help somebody through a problem or something and figure out what happened. They are coming to us at their worst time. Hopefully, we can help them through that,” he said.

He wants the community to know that the St. Anthony Police Department is always there for them.

“We’re here and want to be very helpful to them. They can come and talk to us any time,” Belew said.