State Sheriff’s Association sends mailers for membership

ZANESVILLE, Ohio- You may have received a letter in the mail asking for a donation to the Sheriff’s Office, but questioned it’s validity.

Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Lutz said his office received phone calls inquiring about the letter, and if it was a scam. He said that the letterhead used in the mailers vary from the one traditionally used by his office, which led residents to question it’s authenticity.

Sheriff Lutz said the Buckeye State Sheriff’s Association (BSSA) extends the membership invitations on behalf of the sheriff’s throughout the state. He said the 1103 Schrock Road address is the location of the associations office, and is a good way to determine if the letter is a scam or not.

“What they do is they reach out to each individual sheriff’s community and they do a membership drive,” said Sheriff Lutz.

The BSSA is an association that supports the needs of the state law enforcement community, assisting the sheriff’s in all 88 counties. The membership drive helps generate funds for the association that helps with a variety of matters such as training, legislature committees and providing a resource guide for sheriff’s to reference.

Sheriff Lutz said one example of how the association uses the funds is when one county has an emergency and needs to send deputies from a surrounding county the association will provide lodging for those who traveled to assist.

“In a roundabout way there’s all kinds of different features of how the support can be used,” said Sheriff Lutz.  “We thank the public for their support all the time and this is just another state level step for that, but it does help us locally.”