Dutton takes role in addressing national challenges as president of Western States Sheriffs Assoc.

Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton hosted the U.S. Forest Service Director of Law Enforcement and Investigation and a dozen sheriff's from around the western United States for a first-of-its-kind exercise in the Bob Marshall Wilderness from July 19-23.

In his role as president of the Western States Sheriff's Association – an office he's held since May 16 - Dutton coordinated the outing to the Pretty Prairie area with USFS LE&I Director Tracy Perry as part of an ongoing effort to improve communication between federal land management agencies like the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management and sheriffs across the west.

"I'm proud to say Lewis and Clark County leads on your behalf. The Western States Sheriffs recognize we have a lot of issues in common with other states that includes the Forest Service and BLM," Dutton said during the Lincoln Government Day meeting Aug. 6.

Improving coordination between sheriffs and the federal agencies was an impetus for the formation of the WSSA's in 1993, with former Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Chuck O'Reilly serving as a founding member and as the organization's second president.

"At the time of the founding the sheriff was trying to have conversations about road closures, search and rescue, about issues that are a going on with the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest, and we were largely being ignored," Dutton told the BVD.

Nearly 30 years later, the efforts have largely paid off, with representatives from the agencies regularly attending the WSSA conferences. Nevertheless, the trip to the Bob allowed Dutton to provide Perry with an on the ground perspective of the challenges western sheriffs can face in coordinating search and rescue or investigations on federal land.

"We were able to do a practical exercise and training by getting sheriffs from all over the west and (Perry) to go into the Bob Marshall and talk about what works and what doesn't. We focused on what the Forest Service would like, and we focused on what we can do constitutionally," Dutton said.

He said the conversations were good, but frank.

"We'd be involved when there's a death or for search and rescue. Can we take care of things with minimal impact? sometimes that's easy; sometimes it's not," he said. "It's worth having a conversation that preplans events to go along, instead of saying 'I'm king and I'll do what I want.'"

While there is a National Sheriff's Association, Dutton said its focus is more on the states east of the Mississippi, where vast tracts of public lands are less common and where sheriff's roles have changed over the years.

"That's where the municipalities have outgrown the sheriff, so to speak," Dutton said. "They're not full service. They run the jail and they run civil and that's it. In the west we still are full-service Sheriff's offices."

Although working with federal land managers was an impetus for the creation of the WSSA, it's far from their only concern.

"What we focus on is maintaining the authority of the office of sheriff, number 1," Dutton told the BVD.

He explained there are places where politicians believe the sheriff should be an appointed position.

"The reason we focus on the authority of sheriff is because we are elected by the people, and we are the most accessible by citizens," he said. "So, we feel we are one of the defenders of the Constitution for the United States, plus the constitutions of our respective states. We'll enforce the law, but we are the protection for people who rely on us to look at constitutional issues and say 'yes' or 'no.'"

Currently, border issues are high on the list of concerns among the sheriffs in western states, whether they're southern border states or not.

"From a national perspective, the Western States Sheriff's Association have really been working closely with the border sheriff's," Dutton said.

He said the WSSA considers the current policy on the southern border to be a failed one that has led to a massive influx of illegal aliens, human trafficking and drugs like meth and fentanyl.

"This is important to you because its coming to Helena; it's coming to Lincoln," Dutton said. "All those things, they're here. They've been here for about four years or longer. We know it. They know it. Every day is a battle, only they have more."

He explained the responsibility for dealing with those issues has largely fallen to the border sheriffs.

"We're ending up doing the Federal government's job, and the reason we're doing the federal governments job is the people who are coming over are victimizing our citizens," Dutton said.

While that might seem like a recipe for animus between the sheriffs and the Border Patrol, he said the sheriffs get along well with them and recognize they are constrained by handling a humanitarian mission, rather than a law enforcement mission.

He explained that the southern border sheriffs who step up and provide enforcement where the federal government won't, have the backing of the sheriffs across 17 western states.

The issue has also prompted the WSSA to draft a resolution during their May convention that included a variety of recommendations for the Biden Administration, including an acknowledgement that national security, public safety and humanitarian crises exists at the southern border, and that federal policies be changed to address the crisis and adhere to federal law.

While it may seem odd to have a sheriff from a norther border state as president during a time of crisis on the southern border, Dutton said WSSA officers work their way up through the ranks. He began five or six years ago as the Sergeant-at-Arms and was voted up each year. Dutton assumed the office in May, but he said he was up for the presidency before the border situation took a dire turn.

Dutton's role as the WSSA president may take him out of the office from time to time, but he said it gives him a bigger voice to affect policy within Montana and across 17 states. It also provides him the opportunity to visit other states and bring back information, policies and training to improve his staff, deputies, and detention officers.

Dutton is the fourth sheriff from Montana to serve as president of the WSSA. When he took over the post, Montana had the largest delegation among the 17 states, with 23 sheriffs.

O'Reilly held the office in 1995. Sheriff Jim Dupont of Flathead County, who passed away in 2012, also held the position, as did recently retired Sheriff Tony Harbaugh of Custer County.

The WSSA members include sheriffs from Washington, Wyoming, Oregon, Utah, Idaho, California, Arizona, Nevada, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Texas, and Oklahoma.