ISP struggling to keep positions filled

BOISE – Idaho typically has just 33 state police troopers on the road at any time for the entire state.

That’s fewer than one per county, and just one for every 817 miles of highway. But the Idaho State Police isn’t asking for more troopers this year – because it’s having trouble just filling the positions it already has.

“It would be a very happy day when I can stand up and tell you we have got a full staff,” ISP Director Col. Dan Charboneau told the Legislature’s joint budget committee Wednesday. Currently, he said, there are 14 officer vacancies: 10 for troopers and four for detectives.

In his annual budget presentation to the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, Charboneau said ISP is focusing on trying to keep its existing officers by boosting pay. “I had 10 troopers just in this area ready to leave,” he said. “We struggled … to try to stop the exodus of quality employees out of the agency.”

This year, the agency carefully distributed the 2 percent in salary increases lawmakers approved last year and supplemented them with salary savings from some of the vacancies.

“My main goal is to keep what I’ve got and fill the vacancies,” Charboneau said. He’s also hoping that in future years, lawmakers will fund a new salary policy aimed at retaining ISP employees.

Exacerbating the problem, 8 percent of the ISP’s troopers have been deployed with the National Guard and are serving in Iraq and elsewhere.

Charboneau said he’s “double-filled” those positions, figuring with all the vacancies, there will still be room for the replacement officers when the deployed officers return. “We cannot afford the public safety impact of carrying the positions as vacancies indefinitely,” he said.

When Rep. George Eskridge, R-Dover, questioned whether there’d still be jobs for the replacement officers, Charboneau said he isn’t worried. If he ended up with an extra officer, he said, “what you’re talking about is probably the happiest day of my life, when these guys come back from where they’re at.”

At worst, he said, ISP would have to pass up one of its quarterly hiring cycles.

“I don’t think anybody will question the fact that we need more manpower,” Charboneau said. “We could almost use double the staff we have right now, both on the road and detectives – our guys are just out there going at it day in and day out.”

Nevertheless, Charboneau pointed to some successes in recent years, including a sharp decline in the number of methamphetamine labs busted in Idaho. In 2004, he said, there were just 38, down from 186 in 2000.

ISP is now focusing more attention on traffickers and importers of the drug, he said. But it’s also become aware of problems associated with children exposed to meth labs. The agency has partnered with the Department of Health and Welfare, medical providers, social workers, courts and others to develop ways to deal with children who’ve been exposed to the dangerous fumes and chemicals common in methamphetamine labs.

Cleanup of those labs also is a problem, Charboneau told lawmakers.

“In Idaho, no one is responsible for ensuring that cleanup of these homes, motel rooms and other sites happens consistently. In Idaho, no standards exist for declaring the lab site clean. Again, a partnership is called for.”

He said ISP is working with the governor’s office, the Department of Environmental Quality, the Realtors Association and health authorities to try to address the issue.

The department also is seeking a $325,000 federal grant to have Idaho join a “Western Regional Police Corps” with Alaska, Washington and Oregon. The program would provide 24 weeks of police training for up to a dozen Idaho college graduates, who would get guaranteed employment if they commit to work for ISP for four years after the training. The grant would continue each year for the next decade.