Angry sheriffs respond after ITD advises them to close (again) due to driver’s license problems
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IDAHO FALLS — Sheriffs in eastern Idaho are fed up and frustrated with ongoing Idaho Transportation Department driver’s license processing issues.
On Tuesday morning, ITD advised sheriff’s offices once again to close their doors due to problems with the Division of Motor Vehicle’s software vendor. This is the latest in a series of closures due to similar issues.
Local sheriffs contacted by EastIdahoNews.com after the ITD recommendation Tuesday had already closed their doors because of inefficiencies. Other sheriff’s offices only shut down the portions of their DMV services dealing with drivers licenses. New plates and vehicle registrations can still be processed by county offices.
“This is ridiculous. We processed three (licenses) yesterday and tried all morning to process one,” Fremont County Sheriff Len Humphries tells EastIdahoNews.com. “We shut down before they told us to shut down. We can’t do anything here and we have no control whatsoever over the system.”
Sheriff’s offices were told to process driver’s licenses offline, but several sheriffs say that’s impossible and “a farce.”
“ITD just rolled out this program without a beta test and it doesn’t function. The sheriff’s office gets blamed for it,” Jefferson County Sheriff Steve Anderson said. “My staff knows what they are doing. They are competent, trained and have been doing for years, but the ITD programs shuts down daily and it has nothing to do with us.”
Anderson says service to its citizens is their top priority, but right now the wait for a single license is now 45 minutes to two hours, and that’s just not cutting it.
Bingham County Sheriff Craig Rowland issued a stern statement Monday calling on ITD to take control of driver’s licenses and relieve sheriff offices of the duty.
“I want the public to know that I am as frustrated as they are with this new system. My personnel get yelled at because the system is down or the system is slow. I want the citizens to know that the Sheriff’s Office is not responsible for the down time or the wait time for driver’s license. This is the sole responsibility of Idaho Transportation Department,” Rowland said.
A meeting will be held at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday in Boise to discuss short and long-term solutions, according to ITD. Several local sheriffs are attending the meeting. Stay with EastIdahoNews.com for updates.