Coeur d'Alene Serious Crime Hits 10-Year Low, Down Nearly 24% in 2025

The Coeur d'Alene Police Department recorded 498 Part 1 crimes in 2025, a nearly 24% drop from the prior year and the lowest total the city has seen in at least a decade, according to the department's 2025 annual report.

Part 1 offenses, which include aggravated assault, rape, robbery, homicide, burglary, and major theft-related crimes, have now fallen more than 75% over the past 10 years. That sustained decline is all the more striking considering Coeur d'Alene's population grew to more than 57,000 during that same period, making the per-capita improvement significantly more pronounced than the raw numbers suggest.

Interim Chief Dave Hagar credited community trust as a central driver. "When communities feel that they're being serviced by their police, they're willing to call. They know we're going to respond," he said. He described the department's approach as deliberately preventative: "It's being in the neighborhoods where we've had crime reported. It's sitting [on] unreported drug houses or suspicious activity in order to stop crime before it happens."

Central to that strategy is a structural shift in how officers are deployed. The department created police districts that assign officers to specific geographic areas, giving each officer deep familiarity with the crime patterns and residents of a defined beat. Specialized units support that framework, including a two-man opioid task force, a task force targeting internet crimes against children, and a patrol unit assigned to monitor registered sex offenders in collaboration with the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office.

Hagar was direct about what happens when that proactive capacity breaks down. "So if our officers don't have that time to be proactive and make those stops, then the crimes continue. And now we're responding back to take crime reports, and we get behind the curve, and crime flourishes," he said.

Beyond Part 1 offenses, Part 2 crimes including driving under the influence, disturbing the peace, trespassing, and drug-related violations fell just over 6% in 2025, to 3,316 offenses, continuing a downward trend from 3,709 in 2023 and 3,415 in 2024. One concrete exception stands out: car burglary and vehicle theft cases rose despite the otherwise positive results, an area the department will likely need to address with targeted resources.

The decade-long decline traces to 2014, when former Chief Lee White joined the department and built the strategies that have driven consistent results since. Hagar, serving as temporary chief, is now one of four finalists for the permanent position; in-person interviews were scheduled for March 12, 2026. Among the other candidates is Jake Fisher, chief of the El Monte, California Police Department. Hagar is the only finalist with prior Coeur d'Alene police experience.

The city's numbers fit a broader regional pattern. Kootenai County, the third-largest county in Idaho with an estimated 2026 population of approximately 194,495, saw an almost 10% decrease in reported crime in 2024, totaling 7,079 offenses, according to Idaho State Police uniform crime data.