Taxpayers to pay for an inexpensive child care center for Boise-area police. Why cops?

BOISE, Idaho -- The state’s first — and the nation’s third — law-enforcement child care center is coming to the Ten Mile interchange area in Meridian.

The center would house up to 84 children of officers across the nine agencies in the Treasure Valley, would stay open on nights and weekends, and would charge below-market prices. Plans show a 7,500-square foot building and an accompanying playground almost as large.

Why a child care center specifically for police? Why not one for other government workers, or for families not in government? They face shortages of affordable child care too, as Boise-area day-care centers struggle to survive.

The answer lies in how law enforcement have been “villainized” in recent years, says a former California police detective who formed a foundation to promote child care for law enforcement officers’ families, with the goal of boosting recruitment and diversity in the profession.

Jim McKay launched the National Law Enforcement Foundation in 2022. The retired San Diego detective told the Idaho Statesman that the Treasure Valley center will be based on a law-enforcement child care center that opened in San Diego in February. That center came out of discussions in the local police union.

“Young people really don’t want to be in the profession of law enforcement anymore, because the profession has been villainized,” Mackay told the Statesman, tying dropping recruitment rates nationwide to Black Lives Matter protests and movements to defund the police.

“So that’s where we started looking at, ‘What can we do to change it, to bring the profession back?’” Mackay said. A “key component,” he found, is child care.

Mackay said his foundation drew from research by groups such as the Police Executive Research Forum and 30x30, an initiative to promote recruitment of female officers. According to 30x30, women make up 12% of sworn officers and only 3% of police leaders in the country.

“There are a lot of single families, single parents, that couldn’t do this job because of the shift work, not having family in the area to be able to watch your child,” Mackay said. “So having a center like this opens up a profession to a demographic of single parents that was not there before.”

And a 2023 report by the Police Executive Research Forum found that gender diversity can benefit agencies and help their public image. For example, female officers are less likely to be named in citizen complaints and misconduct reports than male officers, the report said.

Mackay said the San Diego center’s “customizable care” — with long hours and affordable rates — differs from most traditional child care options. “Law enforcement works 24 hours a day,” he said.

Mackay said the center caught the eye of officers in the Treasure Valley and that the foundation formed a community advisory board, which selected fast-growing Meridian for the center. The foundation is also pursuing a center in St. Louis, which is scheduled to open in May 2025.

Mackay said the Meridian center will be open 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week, with the flexibility to add hours if needed.

The San Diego center offers care at 50% the market rate. Mackay said the Treasure Valley center has not landed on a rate yet, but he estimates that it will be between 35% and 50% the market rate.

According to a 2024 report by the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, monthly rates for child care in Ada County range from $680 to $1,177, depending on the age of the child and whether care is part- or full-time.

Mackay also said the center will prioritize higher wages for caregivers, which he hopes will also help with caregiver shortages in the Valley.

The roughly $6 million center will be part of Ahlquist Development’s District at Ten Mile, a 200-acre commercial and residential development planned along Interstate 84 in South Meridian. Ahlquist is set to break ground by December.

Mackay’s foundation will fund the project through multimillion-dollar grants from the state of Idaho and the federal government, and about $1 million in private donations, including a grant from the Boise family foundation named for the late Idaho potato baron J.R. Simplot.

The government grants are a $3 million workforce development grant from Gov. Brad Little’s office and $2.65 million in federal funds secured by U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho. Mackay estimates those will cover the building costs and first three years of operations.

“This project meets an urgent need for child care options in the Treasure Valley and supports efforts to address the police recruitment and retention challenges facing Idaho and the nation,” Simpson told the Statesman in an email.

The center was approved by Meridian’s Planning and Zoning Commission in early September. The broader District at Ten Mile development was approved by the City Council Sept. 24. Mackay guesses the center will be able to begin enrolling officers’ children by mid-summer 2025.

Ahlquist VP Tonn Peterson did not respond to the Statesman’s request for comment.

Mackay says he hopes this will not be Idaho’s last law enforcement child care center. He says he is often asked why his group advocates for child care for law enforcement and not for other public employees like firefighters and nurses.

“If you have a healthy police department, then you have a healthy community base as well, so everybody else can thrive from that,” Mackay said. “We’re happy to help those other workforces doing the same sort of thing, but we concentrate on law enforcement, because ... that’s where the greatest need is.”