June 1. 2023 – Canyon County Sheriff Kieran Donahue issued the following statement today regarding the continued issues with the State’s system that have led to processing delays at driver’s license offices across the state.
“The Sheriffs of Idaho are legislatively mandated to provide driver’s license services to our citizens. It is a responsibility we take very seriously. And yet, once again, the State’s system we rely on to process transactions is failing the citizens of Idaho. For the second day in a row, customers who’ve taken time out of their day to come to our driver’s license office are forced to wait for extended periods or, in some cases, turned away due to issues with the State’s system. This is unacceptable. We have no other options other than use their system, but when it fails, the Sheriffs and their driver’s license office staff are the ones left holding the bag.
Even more concerning is the lack of transparency from the State and ITD. Sheriffs across the state are being told different reasons for what is causing the issues affecting their offices. One Sheriff’s Office was told by ITD to go ahead and issue temporary licenses without a photo or signature. The Sheriff, of course, refused to issue what would be a useless and unusable driver’s license.
We have seen this happen time and time again over the years, yet they refuse to take ownership of the continued problems with their system. We will continue to do everything we can to accommodate our customers, but the State and ITD need to address these issues on the front end and stop passing the buck to Sheriff’s Offices across the state. The citizens of Idaho deserve better.”