COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — A new report by the Coeur d’Alene Police Department reveals that crime has reached a 10-year low, with serious crime dropping by over 75% since 2014.
Interim Police Chief Dave Hagar credits new strategies and a culture shift within the department for making Coeur d’Alene one of the safest cities in the state. Serious crimes including assault and burglary dropped by nearly 24% between 2024 and 2025 alone.
New strategies drive results
The department created police districts that assign officers to specific areas, revolutionizing how they respond to criminal activity.
“We’re intentional about how we deploy our officers, when we see crime trends, where it used to take six weeks to identify a crime trend, we’re tracking, we’re recognizing those crime trends within hours,” Hagar said.
Downtown has seen particularly dramatic improvements through specialized teams including a downtown bar team and bike patrol.
“If you look at, violent crime rates and sexual assaults, things that kind of go along with that bar activity, we had one of the best summers that we’ve had by deploying the officers that way,” Hagar explained.
Officers now focus on preventative policing rather than simply responding to crimes after they occur.
“It’s being in the neighborhoods where we’ve had crime reported. It’s sitting unreported drug houses or suspicious activity in order to stop crime before it happens,” Hagar said.
Despite overall positive trends, car burglary and theft cases have risen because vehicle owners left cars unlocked or valuables visible. The department plans education campaigns to address this.
The police department regularly shares crime statistics and maps with the public for transparency.
“By sharing that, it educates them about what we’re doing, but it also educates them because we put our maps out, we put our arrest stats out,” Hagar said.
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