Board Members

Bill Pandis was born in Choteau, and raised in Great Falls, MT. He is currently the Sergeant of the Lewis and Clark County Sheriff’s Office, Criminal Investigation Division. Bill started his law enforcement career in Missoula County as a Detention Officer in January of 2000. He worked for the Missoula County Detention Center until about September of 2004. At that point he was hired as a Deputy Sheriff for the Mineral County Sheriff’s Office and served as a Deputy Coroner. In November of 2011, Bill left the Mineral County Sheriff’s Office as the Patrol Sergeant and was hired with the Lewis and Clark County Sheriff’s Office. In November of 2015 Bill was assigned to the Criminal Investigation Bureau where he primarily investigated major crimes and crimes against children. In the early fall of 2022 Bill was promoted to Sergeant, and shortly afterwards he was assigned as the supervisor for their investigations division. Up until recently Bill was assigned to the Internet Crimes Against Children position for the LCSO, and still serves as a Federal Task Force Officer for Helena’s FBI VCAC Task Force and is a sworn United States Special Deputy Marshall.

In addition, Bill has held and currently holds numerous extra duty positions with the LCSO, including Field Training Officer, Hostage Negotiator, a Team Leader of the LCSO and Helena Police Department Joint Civil Disobedience Team, Background Investigator, a former board member of the Lewis and Clark County DUI Task Force, and a member of the Helena area Child Protection and Multi-Disciplinary Teams. Also, Bill was recognized as the LCSO Deputy of the Year for 2017, and Bill has served on the MVCIA Board since 2018.

Richard Collins spent his early childhood years in various cities across the United States, a vast majority of his childhood and education occurred on the east coast where he grew up. After graduating high school, he enlisted in the United States Air Force. During his time in the US Air Force, he was assigned to the 28th Security Police Squadron, now the 28th Security Forces Squadron. During his time in the US Air Force, he was assigned to various roles including flightline security, base patrols and as a Law Enforcement Desk Sergeant, both stateside and when deployed overseas in support of various operations. Richard moved to Montana in 1997 where he began his career with the Montana Department of Corrections working with juveniles at Riverside Youth Correctional Facility. During his early years with the Department, he also worked as a Drill Instructor/Facilitator at the Treasure State Correctional Training Center. In 2000, he was hired as a Deputy Sheriff with the Beaverhead County Sheriff’s Office where he was a D.A.R.E. Officer and Reserve Forces Commander. Richard returned to the Department of Corrections in 2005 as a Drill Instructor/Victim Impact Facilitator before being promoted to Senior Drill Instructor.

In 2007, Richard began his career with the Office of Investigations where his primary focus was PREA (Prison Rape Elimination Act) cases that involved sexual assaults and staff sexual misconduct. In addition to investigating both criminal and administrative cases, he was responsible for facilitating numerous courses on PREA for the department and other agencies across Montana. After approximately three years, Richard transitioned to a general case Investigator where he began investigating a variety of felony cases, including violent crime investigations, death investigations and miscellaneous drug investigations; while continuing to advise on PREA related matters and instruct PREA related courses for the department and other outside agencies.

Currently, Richard’s focus is conducting background investigations, investigations of personnel associated with the Department, and the Unified Intelligence Team for the Department. In addition to his role as a Criminal Investigator and working with various local, state, and federal partners, he conducts numerous training courses for the Department including firearms, PREA Investigator Training, Comprehensive Officer Resiliency, and Ethics. Richard began attending the MVCIA Conference in 2014 and was a previous member of the Northwest Gang Investigator Association.

Derek Mahlum was born and raised in Wolf Point, Montana. He started his career with the Wolf Point Police Department in 2004. During the time he worked with various state, local, tribal and federal agencies policing Indian Country.

In 2005, he took a position with the Havre Police Department where he worked until 2011. During this time, he served as a firearms instructor, field training officer and eventually promoted to the position of patrol sergeant. While working for the Havre Police Department, he enjoyed seeking out the most difficult of cases in order to develop them to be presented to the appropriate state or federal attorney for prosecution.

In 2011, he took a position with the Great Falls Police Department. He was later assigned as a general case detective in 2015 where he remained until 2020. During this time he led and assisted with numerous homicide/death investigations as well as various property crimes. In 2020, he was assigned to the newly created Cascade County Violent Crime Prevention Task Force. While in this position, he was tasked with investigating violent felonies to include robberies, shootings, drug and gun trafficking crimes. In 2021, he was promoted to the position of sergeant and returned to patrol before being reassigned as the General Case Detective Sergeant.

Sgt. Mahlum is a member of the International Association of Identification and is also certified by the IAI as a Crime Scene Analyst. Sgt. Mahlum is certified as a Subject Matter Expert for Call Detail Record and Geolocation Analysis, Shooting Incident Reconstruction and Bloodstain Pattern Analysts. Sgt. Mahlum serves as the Montana Regional President for the Pacific Northwest IAI and is a member of the International Association of Bloodstain Pattern Analysts. Sgt. Mahlum is certified as a Subject Matter Expert for Call Detail Record and Geolocation Analysis, and Shooting Incident Reconstruction.