The conference, which was a huge success, held many events for the information and education of the National Sheriffs. Approximately 70 seminars were held on many subjects of interest to the sheriffs. Highlights of the seminars were:
- “Roots - History of the Office of Sheriff” -A presentation about the history and the preservation of the Office of Sheriff;
- “Reading the Tells - Learning How to Read Body Language” - Reading the Tells will give you practical techniques, tools, and strategies for understanding and using non-verbal communication;
- “Hurricane Sandy - Coordinating and Responding to New Jersey's Worst Storm in History” - Monmouth County's coordination and response to the direct hit of Hurricane Sandy to the County and the coordinated county deployment of resources to meet the needs of the county's 53 municipalities;
- “Project Lifesaver and Emerging Technologies” - an overview of the program, who it serves in the community and the radio technology used to help locate individuals that wander due to cognitive conditions such as Autism and Alzheimer's. He also discussed the emergence of new tracking technologies that are surfacing in today's modern world.
Keynote Speaker, Simon Perry, Ph. D, Co-Director of Policing and Homeland Security Studies at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, addressed the attendees during the opening session of the conference. Dr. Perry is currently a Professor in the Graduate School at Hebrew University's Institute of Criminology in Jerusalem and has extensive experience teaching and training intelligence and law enforcement agencies worldwide in the areas of “Policing Terrorism,” “Homeland Security,” “International Organized Crime,” and “Drug Trafficking.”
One of the functions of the annual conference is the election of officers. Sheriff Leidholt from South Dakota was sworn in as the new president of the National Sheriffs' Association. Sheriff Leidholt has served as the Hughes County sheriff since 1995. After five years on the board of directors, Sheriff Leidholt was elected the association's treasurer in 2008 and has moved up through the secretary and three vice-president positions. Officers are elected once, usually starting as the sergeant-at-arms, and move to the next highest position each year through the office of President. Sheriff Leidholt will serve for one year until the next annual conference, where a new President will be sworn into the position.
Over 350 vendors set up exhibits of their products. Sheriffs and their staffs were able to examine the displayed products and ask questions of the vendors to find new technology and new support materials available that would benefit their agency. Software, GPS tracking, vehicles, command units, helicopters, boats, computers, monitoring systems, anything you can imagine was exhibited for the sheriffs to purchase for the use of their agencies.
Sheriffs in the United States are responsible for traffic control, jails and prisoners, investigating and enforcing criminal violations and civil violations and the enforcement of judgments. One Sheriff per county - they have county-wide jurisdiction that varies greatly from one's Sheriff's agency to another in the size of their budget, deputies and staff.
“Chartered in 1940, the National Sheriffs' Association is a professional association dedicated to serving the Office of Sheriff and its affiliates through police education, police training, and general law enforcement information resources.” The NSA has its headquarters in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
