Reviewed and updated October 9, 2026 by the SearchSystems.net editorial team. The arrest counts are the ones each agency reported to the FBI, as the FBI held them on October 8, 2026. The jail figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data. Every office link was opened and checked against the office's own site on September 24, 2026.
Kootenai County, Idaho, has about 188,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office and four city agencies. An arrest leaves the same records whoever makes it: the arresting agency's report, the record of anyone held at the county jail, and, if the Prosecuting Attorney files charges, a case in the Kootenai County District Court. This guide says who keeps each one, what it costs and who may see it, with the arrest counts each agency reported.
This guide covers who makes arrests, how many arrests, booking and the jail, finding an arrest, copies, cities and common questions.
Related guides: Kootenai County public records, Idaho arrest records, Idaho inmate search and Idaho criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Kootenai County
The Kootenai County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Kootenai County. It reported 2,398 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists four cities in Kootenai County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Coeur d'Alene, 57,355 residents: 2,129 arrests reported for 2025.
- Post Falls, 45,800 residents: 958 arrests reported for 2025.
- Rathdrum, 12,626 residents: 320 arrests reported for 2025.
- Spirit Lake, 2,465 residents: 37 arrests reported for 2024.
A city on that list is reported separately whether the officers are the city's own or the sheriff's under contract; the FBI's list does not say which.
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Kootenai County
Each agency reports its arrests to the FBI by month, and the FBI publishes them on the Crime Data Explorer. These are the full-year totals, all offenses, as the FBI held them on October 8, 2026; a year with months missing or not reported is left out.
- Kootenai County Sheriff's Office: 2,398 for 2025, 2,676 for 2024, 3,013 for 2023, 2,711 for 2022, 2,874 for 2021 and 2,734 for 2020.
- Coeur d'Alene: 2,129 for 2025, 2,449 for 2024, 2,450 for 2023, 2,391 for 2022, 2,612 for 2021 and 2,343 for 2020.
- Post Falls: 958 for 2025, 959 for 2024, 1,256 for 2023, 1,261 for 2022 and 1,748 for 2019; 2020 and 2021 are missing months.
- Rathdrum: 320 for 2025, 356 for 2024, 339 for 2023 and 226 for 2019; 2020, 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
- Spirit Lake: 37 for 2024, 6 for 2023, 21 for 2022, 21 for 2021, 46 for 2020 and 59 for 2019.
Together, the four agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 5,805 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 5,805 in 2025 against 6,440 in 2024, down 9.9 percent.
Through June 2026, the three agencies with every month so far on file reported 2,259 arrests, against 2,421 in the same months of 2025.
Spirit Lake reported only part of 2025 (4 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Kootenai County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Kootenai County is held at the county jail, whichever agency made the arrest, apart from the short stay some city departments' own holding cells allow; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked at all. The jail's record of each person held, with the charges, is a public record of the arrest, and the court file takes over from there.
On an average day in 2023 the jail held about 460 people, up from about 410 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023 was 451 beds, and it ran at 103 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
SearchSystems opened and checked the custody page of the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office at kcsheriff.com/169/In-Custody-Report (page title: In-Custody Report | Kootenai County Sheriff, ID), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 24, 2026.
That page is the place to look for someone who was booked recently; a person cited and released at the scene, or held only a few hours by a city department, will not be on it.
A sentence of more than a year is served in state prison; the Idaho Department of Correction lists its inmates at idoc.idaho.gov/content/prisons/resident-client-search.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Kootenai County
An arrest in Kootenai County can be traced in three places, depending on where the case stands: the custody page of the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; iCourt Portal, the Idaho courts' free statewide case search, which shows whether charges were filed; the Prosecuting Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at kcgov.us/454/Prosecuting-Attorney, phone 208-446-1800).
Idaho is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: name-based conviction checks are open to the public, through the Idaho State Police Bureau of Criminal Identification. That record shows what agencies reported to the state, which is wider than one county's court index but can lag it.
Getting a Copy of an Arrest Record in Kootenai County
The report of an arrest is released by the agency that made it; the jail and the court hold their own records of the same event, but not the report. Under the Idaho Public Records Act the agency must answer within 3 working days, or 10 when more time is needed, and it may charge copying after the first 100 pages and labor after the first two hours.
- An arrest by the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls, Rathdrum or Spirit Lake: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city; the city guides linked above name each city's records office.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the Prosecuting Attorney, 208-446-1800, handles discovery for pending cases.
- Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at kcgov.us/655/Public-Records-Request (page title: Public Records Request | Kootenai County, ID).
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based request to the Bureau of Criminal Identification.
Cities in Kootenai County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for four of the 14 cities in Kootenai County: Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls, Rathdrum and Spirit Lake. Hayden, Dalton Gardens, Hauser, Athol, Hayden Lake, Worley, Harrison, Fernan Lake Village, Huetter and State Line have no separate reporting agency in the FBI's list.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the Kootenai County District Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Kootenai County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Coeur d'Alene (57,355)
- Post Falls (45,800)
- Hayden (16,924)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Kootenai County each year?
The Kootenai County Sheriff's Office reported 2,398 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the four agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 5,805 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Kootenai County?
Look on the custody page of the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office at kcsheriff.com/169/In-Custody-Report. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Kootenai County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Kootenai County?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Idaho State Police Bureau of Criminal Identification: name-based conviction checks are open to the public. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Idaho Public Records Act.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Kootenai County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. Under the Idaho Public Records Act the answer is due within 3 working days, or 10 when more time is needed; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at kcgov.us/655/Public-Records-Request.
Is this the official Kootenai County website?
No. SearchSystems.net is an independent public records guide, online since 1997. It links to the official county, court and state offices described above and does not hold records, charge for them or take requests.