HAYDEN — Municipalities are looking into different ways to track and analyze how effective law enforcement coverage is. Some cities, like Hayden, contract their policing through their county sheriff.

Hayden has a standing contract with the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office, which allocates a certain number of deputies to serve Hayden at any given time. 

Current statistics were presented Tuesday to the Public Safety Commission by its chairman, Scot Haug, the former Post Falls police chief.

“I’m a firm believer in data-driven law enforcement,” Haug said.  

He said the city of Hayden received a total of 3,695 KCSO service hours in January. Patrol deputies logged 1,074 hours, and those are deputies not specifically designated to Hayden.

“Those are the non-dedicated deputies,” said KCSO Capt. Kevin Smart. “So those are the deputies that are assigned to the shifts in other areas of the county that responded over for assistance in calls for service.”

Haug said those hours are “over and above” what hours are logged with deputies that are specifically dedicated to Hayden. Those hours are recorded separately, and district deputies logged 2,265 service hours through January.

Vice Chair Doug Chotkevys said he would like to see the number of actual personnel added to the report numbers, because it would be easier for people to understand the numbers of “equivalent heads” than the entire number of service hours.

Haug said Hayden also adds hours from the detective, animal control and community service divisions.

Haug said they had 1,245 calls for law enforcement in Hayden in January. They responded to 21 accidents, issued 145 traffic citations and made 14 arrests.

“I think this report does a pretty good job of explaining the details of what’s going on,” Haug said. “If there are things we would like to see added to it as a commission we can discuss that.”

Haug said crime decreased by 7% between 2021 and 2022, but they haven’t identified a specific reason for the decrease.

Haug said many municipalities try to find ways to identify how much policing is needed.

He said they can measure the number of officers per 1,000 residents, and Hayden has about 1.7 officers per 1,000. That is higher than some other regional cities.

“For North America a lot of cities can only dream about having a number like 1.7,” Chotkevys said. “So I have to say the City Council should feel well knowing that, based on this number alone, we are the best policed city in the region.”