IDAHO – As police officers in liberal western states have grown weary of the soft-on-crime approach, the state of Idaho is reaping the rewards, according to the Daily Wire.
Many police officers in California, Oregon and Washington have been relocating to Idaho because they’ve been disillusioned with liberal politics in their home blue-state. Hence, red-state Idaho is gathering them in greater numbers.
The number of officers from other states applying for certification more than doubled in The Gem State between 2019 and 2021, according to the Idaho Peace Officer Standards & Training, Fox News reported.
Idaho FOP President Bryan Lovell said officers from other states are fed up with policies that decriminalized narcotics and defunded law enforcement agencies.
“They come to Idaho where they can enjoy their career and make a difference,” Lovell noted. “They see that, in large part, our communities are supportive of law enforcement and public safety.”
Perhaps no western law enforcement agency has lost a higher percentage of their personnel than Seattle.
“The Seattle Police Department has lost more than 700 officers in the past five years and is at its lowest staffing level since the 1990s,” King 5 reported in March.
Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz said things are “critical” in the Pacific Northwest city.
“We’re already at critical levels … We are really struggling to make sure we maintain all the calls that are impacting, not just to maintain the calls, but also investigating those calls and also doing the other type of tactics that actually make for safer outcomes for the community,” Chief Diaz said.
“I think if rock bottom was ever a thing, we are probably here,” Seattle Councilmember Rob Saka proclaimed.
A little further south in the Pacific Northwest, the Portland Police Bureau is near the bottom of police officers per capita — 48th out of 50, according to the Manhattan Institute.
“In the short run, the city’s particularly harmful riots following the 2020 murder of George Floyd, as well as its leadership’s embrace of the ‘defund the police’ movement, dealt a massive blow to police morale, driving mass resignations and retirements, which have continued to hamstring operations,” the Institute argued.
On Wednesday, Portland voters helped to oust progressive Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt, Law Officer reported. The George Soros-funded prosecutor was extremely soft-on-crime and frequently at odds with police.
Portland homicides hit a record high in 2022, the city declared a state of emergency after an explosion in fentanyl deaths, and officers resigned en masse — with many citing Schmidt as the reason for their exit, according to the New York Post.
Schmidt was defeated by one of his deputy prosecutors, Nathan Vasquez, who has promised to restore order at the district attorney’s office, and re-establish a mutually beneficial working relationship with police.
Much further down the western coast in Los Angeles, the City of Angels has also lost police personnel.
“The LAPD is hemorrhaging officers, with more leaving the force than are joining it,” the Los Angeles Times reported in April 2023. “(Then) Police Chief Michel Moore reported last week that sworn staffing had fallen to 9,103, down nearly 1,000 from 2019, the year that preceded the outbreak of COVID-19.”
Former CHP Officer Seth Horst is one of many California cops who relocated to Idaho. Living in the northern part of the state, he noted there is tremendous public support for police in the area.
“That is so powerful for the men and women in uniform up here to have that backing. It’s a pretty phenomenal place to do the job,” Horst exclaimed.
He said of the blue states, “The district attorney doesn’t back them, there’s too much liability, so the department won’t let them enforce the law, which is their job. And that bugs a lot of people. They get a job up here, oftentimes taking a huge pay cut because the pay here does not compare to a lot of states. But it’s worth it to them to raise their families in a place that is safe and has those old-school values.”
Last summer, Kootenai County, Idaho, Sheriff Robert B. Norris issued a public statement directed at drug users who planned to visit his county on vacation that narcotics such as cocaine, fentanyl and methamphetamine remain “serious felonies” in the state.
It is this kind of mentality that is appealing to officers who are fleeing liberal jurisdictions.
On an extremely sad note, Deputy Tobin Bolter of the Ada County Sheriff’s Office in Idaho is among the California officers who bolted from The Golden State. Deputy Bolter grew up in Northern California and first became a police officer with the Pleasant Hill Police Department before moving to Idaho.
Tragically, he was shot during a traffic stop on April 20, 2024 and died the following day.
