Agency Accomplishments

Now in their second term, Sheriff Steve Harkins and Chief Deputy Fruehling have brought numerous innovative programs to the Blaine County Sheriff's Office. Here are a few of our accomplishments.

 

  • Implicit Bias Training: This year we spent $3,500 of our education budget to provide Implicit Bias Training for 30 of our patrol and detention deputies. This eight-hour class focused on helping employees recognize that such biases exist, identify the different types, and help them take steps to reduce the impact of those biases on workplace interactions and decisions.

 

  • K9 Team FY22 Highlights: 
  • 218 deployments (117 for K9 Eric and 101 for K9 Kimber) 
  • 69 seizures
  • 37 arrests. 
  • Seized 472 grams of methamphetamine, 56.69 grams of cocaine, 335 grams of marijuana 
  • Multiple seizures of THC oil and edibles, mushrooms, prescription pills
  • $5,500 in cash.
  • Conducted several successful deployments at Wood River High School per their administration’s request
  • Each K9 team also completed over 210 hours of continued required narcotics training this year
  •  Participated in 50 training events, both in-house and with the Twin Falls Police Department K9 Unit 

 

  • Narcotics Enforcement Team FY22 Highlights
    • 7 Methamphetamine Trafficking arrests (one arrest included a Fentanyl Delivery and a Heroin Delivery)
    • Over 2 pounds of Methamphetamine seized
    • $50,000 of assets seized through civil forfeiture
    • One vehicle seized through civil forfeiture
    • NET expanded to 9 BCSO team members, which allows for more regular training

 

  • Drug Recognition Expert Arrests: Drugs other than alcohol (legal and illegal) are involved in about 16% of motor vehicle crashes, and estimates show that almost 44 percent of drivers in fatal car crashes tested positive for drugs. Our DRE program is one of the tools local law enforcement can use to get impaired drivers off our roads. The Drug Recognition Expert program has been proven to be very effective in securing DUI convictions on drug-impaired drivers. The Blaine County Sheriff’s Office has the only DRE in the valley. Since our DRE was certified in May of 2021, we have conducted seven DRE evaluations countywide. Five of those evaluations resulted in DUI charges: one evaluation was for a reckless driver call, three were for vehicle crashes, and one was for a driver that fled and eluded police officers. Our DRE has done evaluations for officers from the Ketchum Police Team, the Hailey Police Department, the Bellevue Marshal's Office, and the Blaine County Sheriff's Office. A DRE program has long been needed in our valley, and we are continuing to educate and train local officers on how to utilize this resource. We expect a substantial increase in the usage of the DRE program in 2022-23.

 

  • Office of Drug Policy Grant Statistics: During the past two quarters, we performed 15 drug interdiction activities which accounted for 168 reimbursable overtime hours from the ODP grant. Six of these stops resulted in drug seizures of marijuana, methamphetamine, fentanyl, and paraphernalia. The final grant quarter will finish at the end of June 2022. 

 

  • Backcountry Patrols: Last summer we were able to perform 244 hours of backcountry patrols on US Forest Service, BLM, and public lands within Blaine County. These patrols included many of the campgrounds, summer cabin areas, and recreational trailheads. The focus was on backcountry safety, off-road vehicle enforcement, and welfare checks. Deputies performed these patrols using patrol vehicles, ATVs, and UTVs. The backcountry patrol program always receives very good feedback from the public we encounter. This program is a seasonal continuation of our winter snowmobile patrol, which has also been very successful over the last few years. 

 

  • Hispanic Liaison Team: Our Hispanic liaison team continues to work to build relationships that increase trust between the police and our Spanish-speaking community, decrease the rate of victimization among the Hispanic community, and increase the number of those that report crimes. By attending community meetings and events, this team hopes to increase the frequency of collaborative interactions between law enforcement and the Spanish-speaking community, promote cultural competency training as part of a standard training program, and brainstorm strategies to reduce language barriers. This past year our Hispanic Liaison Team attended ten community events: 
    • The Hispanic Community Gathering conference in Idaho Falls
    • The Hispanic Heritage Month Festival 
    • Q and A at a local Hispanic radio show
    • The Hailey Hot Wheels Show
    • The Latin X Youth Hispanic Leaders Conference at Ketchum Library
    • Dinner with Hispanic leaders at Limelight Hotel
    • Community School lunch at the Sun Tree Hollow Trailer Park
    • Meet and Greet with Advocates
    • Meet and Greet with Hunger Coalition and The Alliance
    • Meet the Fleet event at the Friedman Memorial Airport

 

  • Marine Patrol: In the fiscal year 2022, our Marine Patrol Team made several improvements to the swim area at Alturas Lake. We purchased four new buoys and new swim area markers. Unfortunately, due to pandemic-related delivery delays, these items were received too late in the season to be deployed last year. These new buoys will help with increased visibility to boaters for the marked no-wake zone and swimming area. The new swim area will be expanded from the previous 7,000 square feet to approximately 10,000 square feet. This area will consist of approximately 3,000 square feet of beach and 7,000 square feet of water that will be roped off with high visibility rope and orange and white buoys spaced every 3 feet on the rope. These improvements create a safer environment for swimming and signage for motorboats not to travel through the area. 


  • Ketchum Field Days: The Ketchum Patrol Team continued our long tradition of community involvement with our 12th annual Field Day at Hemingway Elementary School. We also brought our community and law enforcement together in our annual Bike Rodeo and Wagon Days events. Maintaining a close relationship with the public and our local schools has always been a priority. When schools, our community, and law enforcement work together, we can achieve positive outcomes.

 

  • Going Green: Based on last year’s budget approval, the Ketchum Police Team ordered two new hybrid patrol vehicles this year to support the City of Ketchum’s green plan. Once the vehicles are delivered and fitted with law enforcement equipment, they will replace two aging vehicles and assist with the upgrading of our fleet. 


  • New Financial Software to Track Inmate Money: We have instituted a new financial software system to track incoming funds, and inmate phone and commissary purchases. The new system utilizes existing inmate visitation tablets through a partnership with our inmate phone company and our food services and commissary company. The inmates are now able to order their commissary on the tablets and check the balance on their accounts. We added a kiosk to the booking area where we can deposit money securely to an inmate's account and upon release, we issue them a debit card with the balance from their account. This technology eliminates some of the work the detention staff was previously required to do manually. This new service was provided at no cost to Blaine County.


  • Jail Inspection: We passed our annual Jail Inspection and are certified with the Idaho Sheriff’s Association in partnership with ICRMP and the Idaho Jail Standards again this year. The ISA Inspector continues to praise our professional staff and the management and cleanliness of our facility. We have established a reputation for being very respectful and friendly, and our ability to show patience when dealing with difficult inmates. 


  • Equipment: This year we purchased and installed new recreation exercise equipment for the inmates. The equipment is designed for corrections and jails and is much safer and more secure than the equipment it replaced. This equipment was purchased from funds generated by the Inmate Commissary Trust. 


  • Community Connectivity: Social Media is a major part of our Community Outreach. Now in its ninth year, our online presence is significant. We currently have almost 20,000 followers on Facebook and over 1,200 on Twitter. We regularly communicate public safety information and operational services information to our citizens efficiently, effectively, and promptly to optimize public accessibility to county services and information. We are proud of our social media performance measurements from 2014 to 2022.
    • 29.3 million people reached since inception
    • 298,000 Message Reactions
    • 1.6 million Engagements
    • 31,200 Message Comments
    • 161,000 Message Shares
    • 56% Public Safety Information 
    • 14% Customer Service Information
    • 22% BCSO News
    • 6% Community Connectivity/Transparency