MY TURN: Nobody is going to take away the sheriff

Disclaimer: Yes, I am a Hayden City councilman. However, this opinion is not representing the city in any way. I am speaking as a Hayden citizen and this is only my opinion.

There is a group of people spreading the rumor that Hayden is trying to “get rid of the sheriff.” This is totally false.

The verifiable fact is, that the city of Hayden has contracted with a professional, independent, law enforcement consultant to evaluate the actual law enforcement needs of the city and to analyze the costs of future law enforcement options.

Whichever option the city eventually selects, the citizens of Hayden will still have the services of the Kootenai County Sheriffs Office. In fact, the neighboring cities of Post Falls, Cd'A and Rathdrum basically have a two-tiered law enforcement model. Each of those cities have their own police department, as well as the services of the sheriff's office.

All Kootenai County taxpayers pay into the Justice Fund. The Justice Fund covers such things as the sheriff, the prosecutor, operations of the courts, and other things. There are line items in the Justice Fund. One line item in the Justice Fund is patrol. Each taxpayer, as a line item of paying into the patrol line item of the Justice Fund pays for the sheriff to patrol their city.

Most metropolitan type areas (which Kootenai County has become) have similar law enforcement models. The incorporated cities have their own police departments and the sheriff is basically backup or support for the city police. The sheriff is primarily responsible for the unincorporated areas of the county and the jail and courts. The jail is usually, by far, the primary sheriff responsibility.

Regardless of whether a city has its own police department, the sheriff is, and will, still be the chief law enforcement official in the county. Nobody is trying to “get rid of the sheriff.”

If the city of Hayden were to move to a police department, the citizens would still be paying into the Justice Fund, and the patrol line item of the fund (currently around $800K from Hayden taxpayers). The amount that is currently, or whatever the citizens decide in the future, the enhanced law enforcement amount would fund a police department. If the city were to, hypothetically, do away with the enhanced contract, the sheriff would still statutorily provide service to the city of Hayden, as they do to Post Falls, Cd'A and Rathdrum.

A couple of years ago, the city was paying $953K and getting eight patrol deputies. That is total deputies, not per shift, or per day. Total to staff 24 hour/7-day week. Hayden is currently paying $1.193 million for sheriff service. That gets the city five patrol deputies. Three fewer patrol deputies for $240K more.

The county has told the city that this next year,it wants $1.308 million for five patrol deputies. That is an increase of $115K over the current year. An increase of $355K for three fewer patrol deputies in just a couple of years.

The city has zero accountability, zero control and zero to say about management of the daily activities in the city of Hayden. In fact, the major issue of concern is that the sheriff does not show the city the data that demonstrates that the city is getting what the city is paying for.

Hypothetically, if the city were to use the amount that it is expected to pay the county ($1.308 million next year) and fund its own police department, the city would be in a similar model to our neighboring cities. Hayden would have its own officers, with the city being accountable and in control of the actions of its officers, as well as having the sheriff as backup/support; as they are in Post Falls, Cd'A and Rathdrum. The $1.308 million (or whatever the taxpayers decided they wanted to pay) would go toward officers focused within the city borders and focused on Hayden issues.

The possible consideration is potentially to move to the model of our neighboring cities and to have the benefit of both a city-managed police department and the services of the Kootenai County Sheriff. I would think that such a model would relieve some of the challenges the sheriff is currently facing and allow more focus on the situation with staffing the jail?

Coming back to the beginning: Just because Hayden might have a police department, does not mean that the sheriff will go away. Hayden is not trying to “get rid of the sheriff.”

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Ed DePriest is a Hayden resident.