COEUR d'ALENE — When an inmate fight breaks out at the Kootenai County jail with sheriff’s deputies nearby, who ya gonna call?

The Coeur d’Alene Police Department, of course.

Even though the sheriff’s office and jail are connected and the jail is managed by sheriff’s employees, the fact that their facilities are actually within Coeur d’Alene city limits means it’s the city’s responsibility to respond.

Coeur d’Alene Police Chief Lee White told The Press Kootenai County is the only county in Idaho where a police department, rather than jail or sheriff’s office personnel, handles incidents within the county jail. Handling an incident, White said, includes responding to the jail if something like inmate fighting or drug smuggling occurs, then doing all of the paperwork associated with the incident.

“Outside agencies don’t come in for those things in any other county,” White said, adding an outside agency is typically called in only when an incident like prison rape or suicide occurs and litigation is likely.

That anomaly could be corrected if early talks between city and county officials reach fruition. The stimulus for those talks is a proposed $12 million expansion of the jail, which has already received verbal support from the Kootenai County Board of Commissioners. At the heart of talks is possibly de-annexing the property from the city — which could save the county more than $100,000 in impact and building permit fees it otherwise would have to pay the city.

Last year, White said, his office responded to 226 calls for service at the jail, 5500 N. Government Way. Although some of those responses were from individuals using the sheriff’s office to report a crime that had occurred in Coeur d’Alene, White said many were in response to an inmate incident. White added his department has responded to 105 calls at the address so far this year.

Crimes committed by inmates are reflected in the crime rates for the city of Coeur d’Alene, but White said having those incidents removed is not where the positive impact would happen with his department should annexation occur.

“It really doesn’t change the crime stats for the county, just one city entity,” White said. “The bigger part of this deal is the amount of time that officers spend dealing with these instances. Even bigger than that is service to the individual in our community — it’s about the time that our officers are spending performing functions for the people of our community as opposed to spending time in the jail.”

White stressed his department has a great working relationship with the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office, and the potential de-annexation would not change the fact they regularly work hand-in-hand.

“We still need to discuss the matter further with the county and go from there,” city spokesman Sam Taylor said. “We might be able to address the response issues without annexation. But (the jail) not being in the city could still help us with removing some of the administrative tasks.”

De-annexation was presented to the county during a meeting of the Kootenai County Board of Commissioners last week before commissioners gave three thumbs up to a $12 million plan that would expand the jail by 126 beds with a shell for more room to grow. County Building and Grounds Supervisor Shawn Riley told officials the city had expressed interest in de-annexing the property.

According to Riley, the property was likely originally annexed into the city for access to the city’s sewage and water systems. Commissioner Dan Green then asked Riley if he had “any angst” about the idea.

“We can’t think of any real negatives,” Riley responded. “You just want to make sure you’d still be able to hook up to city services.”

Riley added the county could potentially save more than $120,000 in impact and building permit fees if the de-annexation occurred.