HAYDEN — Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris made his case Wednesday night that the city of Hayden needs to invest more money in law enforcement.

“We are at a critical point,” he told about 75 people at the Office of Emergency Management during the 70-minute meeting.

The KCSO called the town hall meeting following a Feb. 6 incident in Hayden that involved hostages, a fire and a standoff.

When it was over, Kenneth T. Wilson, 59, of Spokane, was arrested and charged with three counts of aggravated assault and with unlawful possession of a firearm, both felonies. He is being held in the Kootenai County jail on $500,000 bail. Wilson was also cited for obstruction, false imprisonment and animal cruelty, all misdemeanors.

Wilson had a previous record that included convictions of numerous felonies in Washington, including attempted rape in 1994, as well as failure to register as a sex offender in 2002, 2004 and 2005.

He was also previously convicted of possession of a controlled substance in 2008 and with false imprisonment and assault in 2017.

“This was not a good person that came to live in our community,” Norris said.

The incident left many people shaken.

He said a community-based policing model would have raised the likelihood that KCSO would have known about Wilson, checked on him and prevented the incident.

“Our odds would have been increased,” Norris said.

He said deputies need time to establish relationships throughout Hayden, which help prevent crime, rather than going from call to call taking reports.

He called for proactive law enforcement.

“Don’t wait until this gets out of control,” he said.

The crowd broke into groups following the outline of what happened on the 800 block of Dee Court and shared concerns with KCSO personnel.

Many asked what staffing levels KCSO needed to properly police in Hayden, and what that would cost.

Undersheriff Dan Mattos said KCSO has a total of just over 50 patrol deputies, about 15 detectives and an annual budget of about $35 million, which isn’t enough to cover about 1,300 square miles between Bonner and Benewah counties.

Much of its budget goes to operating the jail, which on Wednesday had nearly 400 inmates.

“Not only are we being disproportionately centered on serving Hayden at the expense of others, we're already in the hole,” Mattos said.

About 20 years ago, Hayden’s population was about 3,000 and it could be covered by a few deputies. Today, it has 17,000 people and KCSO is budgeted for three and a half deputies there — far from what is needed, Mattos said.

“There’s just too much going on,” he said.

Norris said Hayden spends about 6% of its budget on law enforcement in its contract with KCSO, while most cities spend from 20% to 40%. Asked for a dollar amount, he said Hayden should spend $1.8 million.

He said Hayden spends more on parks, recreation and public works than it does on law enforcement.

“Show me a city anywhere in Kootenai County that’s spending twice as much or three times as much on public works and parks and rec than they do on law enforcement,” he said. “It’s nonexistent.”

KCSO is responding to more service calls in Hayden, which is draining other resources for the rest of the county, he said, and that is having an effect.

“We are starting to have problems in other areas of the county,” he said.

Arrests and citations are down, which Norris said means crime is going to increase.

More funding would allow KCSO to keep better tabs on people on probation or parole when they move to the area to “be sure they are on the straight and narrow.”

He would like to see at least one deputy per 1,000 residents.

Hayden could form its own police department, but Norris said, “We believe we can do it better and cheaper.”

He urged citizens to talk to neighbors, attend council meetings and get involved and let their elected leaders know their concerns.

Hayden, Norris said, is no longer a rural community, is attracting more people and not all have good intentions. The result could be increased burglaries and vehicle theft — unless the city focuses funds on the community-based policing model.

“We’re going to start seeing things creep up all over the place,” he said.