Homeland Security | Law Enforcement | Deputies | Leadership

The National Sheriffs' Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to raising the level of professionalism among those in the law enforcement field. NSA is a key player in shaping national policy on critical criminal justice and homeland security issues important to the nation's sheriffs, deputies and police in the halls of Congress, US Courts and at the White House.

NSA is lead by an Executive Committee and Board of Directors comprised of members of NSA who are currently holding the elected position of Office of Sheriff. The Executive Committee has supervision, control, and direction of the affairs of the Association and shall be Trustees of the Corporation. The Board of Directors annually reviews the Association's progress and outlines the law enforcement policies that guide the Association's activities.

Annual Reports
2012 Annual Report (pdf) 2011 Annual Report (pdf) 2010 Annual Report (pdf) 2009 Annual Report (pdf) 2008 Annual Report (pdf) 2007 Annual Report (pdf) 2006 Annual Report (pdf)	Constitution & Bylaws (pdf) Code of Ethics (pdf)

Message from the President

Sheriff Paul H. Fitzgerald Sheriff Larry Amerson

I wish to thank you for giving me the honor to serve you as President of the National Sheriffs’ Association. I am acutely aware that I am following 70 men that held this position and established a strong tradition of honorable service to the Sheriffs of America. It is my firm intention to keep that tradition alive and well. I give my word to do my best to represent you with the same energy and dedication as I perform my duties for the residents of my county. You have put your trust in me as well and I pledge to strive to serve the Sheriffs of America to the best of my ability.

We have what promises to be an eventful year facing us. As the events will unfold that resolve the future direction of our country at the ballot box we know that massive amounts of money will be spent on advertising- much of it negative. Unfortunately those ads will likely have the unintended consequences of a negative impact on the opinions of our citizens about their government. You and I understand we are the Sheriff for every county citizen no matter what their political affiliation, ethnic background, financial status or other descriptive category they belong to. I believe our status as trusted leaders will become even more important as events unfold.

Our Association faces a challenging and exciting year as well. Like almost all government related agencies there is less money coming in. Your NSA staff is working hard to improve services to you while finding ways to improve the bottom line. If you take time to reflect one realizes we and our staffs are subject matter experts on county jails, courthouses, local homeland security and leadership. The average Sheriff has a longer tenure than other local law enforcement leaders with a critical factor added in. We were selected by our citizens. When you consider the fact that eighty Five percent of America’s jails are operated by a Sheriff it is clear we are on the forefront.

We introduce NSA’s new Center for Public Safety and its four institutes: the Institutes for Jail operations, Court Security, Homeland Security and Leadership. We are on the front lines for homeland security on the local level and Sheriffs by the nature of our position are community leaders. The NSA staff is working with our partners to bring you courses designed for today’s law enforcement professionals and the challenges facing them. These courses are designed to increase the competence and professionalism of you and your staff and provide a key ingredient, certification upon successful completion of the training.

Working with our partner, Columbia Southern University, four different classes for jail staff are available from the Institute of Jail Operations. These classes based on current jail operation principles with the legal based jail guidelines providing a solid legal foundation provided by Supreme, District and Circuit court decisions on jail issues from across the country. The legal based jail guidelines are available to jails. Using these you can do a self-audit of your policies giving you enhanced protection from law suits. These tools will ensure you are running a constitutional jail. Other courses include Liability Management, Correctional Law, Personnel Management and Jail Operations. Much of this training material is available on line. We are bringing you university quality instruction using the latest technology supported by today’s leaders.

We partnered with the National Domestic Preparedness Coalition to provide training with certification as a Homeland Protection Professional and a certification as a Homeland Protection Associate. The Institute of Leadership is still in the development stages with assistance from other leading organizations.

As you can see the NSA staff has been busy and productive. They are excited by these quality offerings and they are focused on your success. I feel strongly that NSA is the best value for your training dollar! We will ensure that the leaders of tomorrow will be trained by the leaders of today- an American Sheriff. I look forward to an exciting year with you.