Steve “Schmidty” Schmidt is originally from the small town of Malta, Montana, and is a man of many uniforms.

​He served eight years as a decorated police officer for the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department. Wearing a blue uniform by day, he would swap it out for a giant green fur uniform by night. Officer Schmidt was also a professional Mascot (x3) for Kansas City’s Major League Soccer Team, KC’s largest country radio station, and the largest amphitheater in the KC area.

​Behind the badge, Schmidty specialized in Community Oriented Policing and loved being a Verbal Judo instructor and Field Training Officer (FTO). Schmidty was also a Firefighter/EMT at the Yellowstone Club which is one of the world's most exclusive private ski and golf resorts.

​Schmidty has a lifelong passion for sales, marketing, graphic design, and video production. He also spent many years working in sales, marketing, and business consulting.

​Schmidty is also an entertaining and engaging speaker. He speaks on stages across the country on topics usually focused around utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) to influence behaviors in the realms of traffic safety, public health, emergency management, substance use disorders and dealing with difficult people. He has an online course with now over 46,000 students from 154 different countries.

Drawing from this somewhat strange and diverse background, Schmidty serves the citizens of Missoula County, Montana as the coordinator of Drive Safe Missoula. Drive Safe Missoula is part of the Missoula Public Health and serves as the home to the county’s DUI Task Force and Buckle Up Montana Coalition. He’s been a Child Passenger Safety Tech (CPST) for 6 years.

​Schmidty has also dedicated much of his life to volunteering at summer camps for kids. He has attended 27 Summer camps for the Muscular Dystrophy Association and 9 Law Enforcement Youth Camps.

​Schmidty’s partner, Dr. Leanne Beers, is a Sexologist specializing in research and working with individuals with disabilities. His daughter Jessica (25) is a former 4th & 5th-grade special education teacher now working in the non-profit world, and his son Thomas (24) is a professional firefighter paramedic (and fellow CPST) in Missoula.

​If you are ever in Missoula, you might see Schmidty zipping around town on his space-aged Electric Unicycle (EUC), which he believes rides on the cutting-edge future of personal electric transportation.

​​Update: As of May 2026, Schmidty is back in costume once again. Meet Buckles the Drive Safe Missoula Mascot. Buckles helps spread positive traffic safety messages to the Missoula community. His Knuckles for Buckles song and coloring book are coming soon.