Who Are We?

The Idaho Sheriffs' Association (ISA) is a non-profit professional organization consisting of 44 county elected sheriffs. The ISA facilitates communications between its members and other government entities that it typically works with such as the Idaho Department of Correction, State Police, Department of Agriculture, Department of Parks and Recreation, Indian Tribes, State Legislature, Department of Transportation, Peace Officer Standards and Training, Health and Welfare, Emergency Communication Center and numerous committees and sub-committees within these organizations. Some of the communication involve implementing procedures and policy as a result of new laws. For example, the 2009 legislative session passed a law pertaining to invasive species and the current Sheriffs' Association worked with the Department of Agriculture to help implement the enforcement portion of the law, including assisting with policy development and responding to requests for suggestions from the Department for future "tweaking" of the statutes pertaining to enforcement.

The ISA conducts three general conferences a year: February, June and December. Training is provided to sheriffs and their staff at all conferences and topics include: sexual harassment, executive leadership, missing and exploited children, hiring and firing issues and a myriad of other subjects important to successfully operating a sheriff's office and jail. The February and December meetings are held in Boise. The June meeting and a Board of Directors meeting are held in other areas of Idaho and the meeting locations change to accommodate the various regions of Idaho. The ISA rotates meetings north and south and east and west to provide presence in all regions of Idaho.

The Executive Director is responsible for the day to day operations of the organization, arranging all conferences as well as conference calls and routine communications with the president of the association. The Board of Directors with advice from the president recommend appointments to various commissions and committees that the Idaho governor appoints. Examples of these committees and commissions are: Medal of Honor Commission, Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST), Criminal Justice Council, Search and Rescue Committee, Driver's License Clearing House, Idaho Law Enforcement Telecommunication System, State Interoperability Executive Committee, Domestic Violence Council, Anti-Terrorism Task Force, Off-Road Highway Vehicle Committee and other similar type committees.

In addition to the sheriffs' meetings, jail administrators meet at the same time and the ISA sets the agenda and facilitates the meetings. The ISA Jail Inspector works with jail administrators to develop and maintain Idaho Jail Standards. As a result of the jail standards developed in 1976 an inspection process was created that continues to this day. County commissioners have relied heavily on the results of the jail inspections, and the Idaho courts, ACLU and other legal authorities have responded to the standards and inspection process when evaluating the constitutional operations of Idaho jails.

A fourth ISA meeting is held in September, but this meeting is a Board of Directors meeting only, and is held in conjunction with the Idaho Association of Counties meeting. The purpose of this meeting is to handle business that needs attention, approve next fiscal year's budget and to ensure communications with other elected officials throughout Idaho as the Idaho Association of Counties membership consists of elected clerks, treasurers, commissioners, coroners, and prosecutors.

In addition to inspecting jails the ISA is required by law to conduct a New Sheriff's School every four years following the state-wide election for the office of sheriff. The school is 40 hours in length and consists of leadership and executive level training including personnel issues and budget development.

The ISA has a lobbying component in which a contract attorney represents ISA and lobbies the state legislature on behalf of sheriffs to improve laws that pertain to enforcement and jail issues. The attorney also assists the ISA in legal matters and development of policies and procedures pertaining to law enforcement and jail operations that mitigate liability.

Other projects ISA is involved in are the Social Security Administration Sheriff's Incentive Program, Victim Information Notification Everyday (VINE) program, Regional Offender Management Center (ROMC) program, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Domestic Cannabis Eradication and Suppression program, and the Scholarship Program.

The Sheriff's Incentive Program consists of a reporting process to Social Security Administration by ISA on behalf of Idaho sheriffs that report inmate populations by name and other identifying factors to determine if social security benefit recipients are incarcerated for a certain length of time. If a person is incarcerated more than 30 days and receives benefits, the benefits are terminated for the duration of incarceration and the sheriff's office receives a $400 payment. The executive director monitors jail populations in Idaho Jails and creates electronic reports from each jail to send to the Social Security Administration each month. Jails are interfaced into a system that allows electronic monitoring.

The VINE program notifies victims of domestic abuse and other violent crimes of the incarceration status of their perpetrator. The ISA was recently awarded a federal Byrne JAG grant to continue operating the VINE program state-wide. The association will work toward adding a civil protection order and court component to the program in the future. The additional components will allow a victim or third party to be notified of protection order status and any court status of an offender such as preliminary hearing date or bond reduction hearing date. This information will be accessible by anyone registering in the system.

The Idaho Sheriffs' Association, Idaho Association of Counties and Idaho Department of Correction recently were awarded a federal grant to research the possibility of jointly building and operating Regional Offender Management Centers to house both misdemeanant and felony offenders, including treatment and probation and parole services. The ROMC working group consists of several sheriffs, Department of Correction personnel, county commissioners and the executive director of the current Idaho Sheriffs' Association and the executive director of the Idaho Association of Counties. The executive director of the Sheriffs' Association is the project director. The ROMC is a result of our collaboration with the Idaho Department of Correction and Idaho Association of Counties to seek better and more cost effect methods of dealing with incarcerated offenders.

The ISA administers funds ($170,000 in 2009) to sheriffs and other law enforcement agencies for the purposes of suppressing marijuana out-door grow operations throughout Idaho. Funds are used to pay overtime to deputies and police officers, purchase investigation supplies and food, and to pay for helicopter air time for surveillance purposes. ISA is also involved in the planning and coordination of summer marijuana eradication projects.

ISA raises funds for college and university scholarships for Idaho kids. The ISA June conference is dedicated to raising contributions to fund scholarships through fundraisers such as golf tournaments, motorcycle rallies and mountain bike rides. Two new scholarships worth $1500 are awarded each year for four years. The number of scholarships may change based on revenues. Only Idahoans who are children or grandchildren of sheriffs or their employees are eligible, and they can attend any accredited four year college or university, or two year junior college. ISA's goal is to maintain a minimum of eight active scholarships at all times.

Currently, ISA provides training, jail inspections, strategic planning, and victim services that are not available from existing government sources and all these processes better the performance and services they provide to citizens. Without services provided by ISA the cost to the state of Idaho and to local communities would increase to accommodate the transfer of additional responsibilities.

ISA is funded through a dues structure and public donations. In addition, vendor fees and sponsorships are collected at conferences to off-set costs. Administrative fees are collected from grants received from federal sources.

ISA funding mechanisms consist of the following. Community Safety, LLC is a telemarketing firm that solicits donations from business and the public. Dues is charged each Idaho county on an annual basis. Sponsorships and fees are charged vendors at conferences. Grant administration fees are charged to the DEA and federal government for the marijuana eradication program and Regional Offender Management Center research. Individual donations are received directly from the public and a scholarship fundraising event is held in June of every year.