Who is already reading license plates in Kootenai County

Hayden is deciding whether license plate cameras belong in the city. In the rest of Kootenai County, some have been running for years.

Here is what is on the record about who operates them, and what is not.

COEUR D'ALENE POLICE

Police Chief Greg Yeager told the Coeur d'Alene Press in August:

- The department has used plate readers since 2007.
- It has 20 Motorola cameras, many of them at eight fixed locations.
- Three vehicles carry mobile readers, and there are two trailers.
- The cameras cost about $17,000 a year to operate.
- They are used for stolen cars, homicides, poaching and missing people, and not for minor traffic infractions.
- Data is kept one year at most.

Yeager said the department has had "good success" finding missing elderly people and minors. He gave no count of hits or arrests.

POST FALLS POLICE

Mayor Randy Westlund said in July that the city will not use Flock cameras, KXLY reported. He said:

- The city owns its own plate readers. The Idaho Freedom Foundation reported they are Motorola units.
- Every use is tied to an active case, access is audited, and alerts are limited to active wanted lists.
- The city works with federal law enforcement, and the data is not shared commercially.

Westlund said the city would publish its camera policies. We have not read them.

KOOTENAI COUNTY SHERIFF

The sheriff's office had readers mounted on patrol vehicles. In July 2025 county commissioners declined to renew the software contract, saving about $24,000, KHQ reported.

- Sheriff Bob Norris argued to keep it. He reported 419 inquiries and 19 solved cases that year.
- Commissioners said they had not seen a measurable return, and said the sheriff's figures included fixed cameras the cut did not affect.

We have not confirmed what readers, if any, the sheriff's office has today.

PRIVATE CAMERAS

Stores, landlords and homeowners associations can buy plate readers too.

- A volunteer mapping project listed 11 Flock cameras on private property around Coeur d'Alene in August, the Press reported. The map is built from public reports and is not an official count.
- We found no count for Hayden, Post Falls, Rathdrum or the rest of the county.

HAYDEN

Zero city-operated cameras, Councilman David Erickson said Tuesday. The council plans a workshop on a policy, tentatively in January.

HOW MANY CARS

The Idaho Transportation Department counts nearly 60,000 vehicles a day on Interstate 90 between Post Falls and Coeur d'Alene, the Press reported.

WHAT HAS NOT BEEN PUBLISHED

We found no agency in the county that has published its camera locations, its audit records, or its counts of plates read and matches found.

HOW WE REPORTED THIS

Every figure above is from the news reports linked below, read Nov. 11, 2026. We have not yet confirmed them with the agencies.