Juvenile Probation and Parole

By statute, counties administer juvenile probation and aftercare services under the direction of the counties. County authorities and juvenile courts administer probation services and aftercare.

Probation services are under the jurisdiction of county commissioners. There is no state oversight agency; their only oversight is with the Association of Counties.

After a juvenile is released from a residential aftercare facility they go back to county jurisdiction and are supervised by a juvenile probation officer.

Officers do not carry a firearm. They are not classified as peace officers and do not have the power to arrest.

There is no statutory authority for officers to carry a firearm.

At the time of the survey, various counties were considering allowing officers to carry a firearm.

There are no private companies providing probation or aftercare supervision services.

Adult Probation and Parole

Within the Executive Branch, the Department of Correction, the Community Corrections Division administers adult parole services and adult felon probation services. Misdemeanant supervision is the responsibility of the counties, some of which have probation departments.

Officers have the option of carrying a firearm. They are not classified as peace officers but do have the power to arrest. Officers do not undergo psychological testing prior to being allowed to carry a firearm.

Officers are required to carry their firearms if they are in the field and will have offender contact. Not only firearm, but bullet resistant vest, hand cuffs, pepper spray and radio/cell phone are also required in the field.

Probation and parole officers receive training from firearm instructors located at Idaho’s district offices. The firearms instructors are probation officers and are trained at National Rifle Association sponsored firearm instructor training courses. They also attend Glock armorer school and must certify periodically to continue as an instructor. The state recently went to Idaho POST academy for basic training and certification. Idaho still uses NRA as its instructor training course, but will be moving toward POST certified instructors.

Idaho also has a use of force committee comprised of firearm instructors, field probation officers, field management, and administrative management personnel. The use of force committee determines what forms of force equipment are authorized, develops use of force policy and provides instructors for training on the use of force continuum.

Only those officers who carry are required to take the training. An officer must proficiently complete the training prior to being allowed to carry a firearm. They receive continuing education and re-qualify once a year. All probation/parole officers who work in the field are required to re-qualify annually as well as take quarterly officer safety training.

Armed officers are required to carry a .40 caliber that is provided by the state.

There are no private companies providing adult supervision services.

For updates or corrections to the information on this page, please contact: Diane Kincaid