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Canyon County Sheriff | COPLINK, and a subscription to a national police database

The Sheriff's Office has paid every year since at least 2018 to keep its records in a law enforcement data sharing platform, renewed by the commissioners each year on a unanimous vote and paid for out of Homeland Security grant money. In 2025 the county described it as information sharing with the Fusion Center.

At a glance

How long it has run
The master agreement was signed in 2018 and ratified in May 2019. It has been renewed every year since, most recently in August 2025 [1] [6]
What it is
In the county's own descriptions: a law enforcement database sharing program, a portal that shares data with subscribers, and information sharing with the Fusion Center [2] [4] [6]
Who pays
Federal money throughout. The first two years came from an initial grant, and every renewal since has been paid from the Homeland Security Grant, latterly named as the State Homeland Security Program [1] [4] [5]
Price
$8,724 in 2022 and $9,335 in 2023, the only two years a figure was read into the minutes [4] [5]
Its history
The original contract was with IBM, which turned it over to Forensic Logic. It started with a grant through the Idaho State Police and moved to local grant funding [1] [2]
How it is regulated
Through the criminal justice information services system, per the county's 2020 description [2]
The vote, every year
Unanimous, every time, in seven recorded decisions from 2019 to 2025 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
What data goes in
Not described in any of the items. The minutes say the Sheriff's records are shared, not which ones [1] [6]
Which agencies can read it
The 2019 item describes sharing information around the nation. No document we read names the agencies or the fusion centers on the other end [1]
Which fusion center
The 2025 item names "the Fusion Center" without identifying it. Idaho's is the Idaho Criminal Intelligence Center, a unit of the Idaho State Police, which we have not confirmed as the one meant [6]

How it happened

  1. Decision

    The master agreement is ratified

    The Board votes unanimously to ratify the master services agreement with Forensic Logic (no. 19-057) and unanimously to approve the supplemental addendum for COPLINK data integration maintenance (no. 19-058). The chief deputy sheriff tells the Board the original contract was with IBM, that it encouraged agencies to share data, and that the first two years were covered by the initial grant before the homeland security grant took over. [1]

  2. Decision

    Renewed, and described as a portal

    The Board votes unanimously to renew (no. 20-078). The chief deputy describes a subscription the county has had for several years, a portal that shares data with subscribers, regulated through criminal justice information services, begun on an Idaho State Police grant. [2]

  3. Decision

    $8,724

    The Board votes unanimously to renew (no. 22-036). The chief deputy describes a law enforcement database sharing program paid from the Homeland Security Grant, at $8,724 a year. [4]

  4. Decision

    $9,335

    The Board votes unanimously to renew (no. 23-072), described as the sharing of confidential information among law enforcement, paid from the State Homeland Security Program grant. [5]

  5. Decision

    Renewed again

    The Board votes unanimously to renew (no. 24-077), described as a standard annual agreement allowing the sharing of information between agencies, the only change being the cost. [3]

  6. Decision

    Named as the Fusion Center

    The Board votes unanimously to renew (no. 25-100). The county's emergency operations manager describes it as a renewal contract for information sharing with the Fusion Center, paid from the Homeland Security Grant. It is the first time the minutes use that phrase for it. [6]

Most of what this site documents is equipment: a camera on a pole, a drone in a dock. This one is a subscription. It leaves no mark on the landscape, it costs less than ten thousand dollars a year, and it has been renewed without a dissenting vote for seven years.

Seven years of unanimous renewals

The county’s master services agreement with Forensic Logic was signed in 2018 and ratified by the Board on 3 May 2019, alongside a supplemental addendum for what the minutes call COPLINK data integration maintenance. Both passed unanimously.[1]

It has come back to the Board every year since: May 2020, May 2022, June 2023, August 2024, August 2025. Every renewal passed unanimously.[2][4][5][3][6] Two of those years put a figure in the minutes: $8,724 in 2022 and $9,335 in 2023.[4][5]

What the county has said it is

No single item explains the system. Read across seven years, the descriptions accumulate.

In 2019 the chief deputy sheriff told the Board the original contract was with IBM several years earlier, that it encouraged law enforcement agencies to share their data, and that the biggest advantage was being able to share the information around the nation. The first two years were covered by an initial grant; after that local agencies picked up the cost, covered by the homeland security grant. IBM had since turned it over to Forensic Logic with no change in operation.[1]

In 2020 he described a subscription the county had held for several years and called it a portal that shares data with subscribers, regulated through the criminal justice information services system, started on a grant through the Idaho State Police and moved to local grant funding.[2]

In 2022 it was “a law enforcement database sharing program and is paid from the Homeland Security Grant”.[4] In 2023, “the sharing of confidential information amongst law enforcement”, paid from the State Homeland Security Program grant.[5] In 2024, a standard annual agreement allowing the sharing of information between agencies, the only change being the cost.[3]

In August 2025 the county’s emergency operations manager described it as “a renewal contract for information sharing with the Fusion Center which is paid from the Homeland Security Grant”.[6] That is the first time the minutes attach a fusion center to it.

What none of it says

Which records go in. The minutes say the Sheriff’s Office shares data and never say what data. A county sheriff’s records include arrests, but they also include reports on people who were never charged, field contacts, and calls for service.

Which agencies read it. The 2019 item talks about sharing information around the nation, which is the point of the product, and no item names a single agency on the other end.

Which fusion center. Idaho’s is the Idaho Criminal Intelligence Center, a unit of the Idaho State Police, and the 2025 item does not say whether that is the one it means. We have not confirmed it.

And whether any of it is audited. Nothing in seven years of these items mentions a query log, an audit, or a review.

Why a subscription is worth watching

A plate reader has to be bought, mounted and maintained, and somebody notices it on the pole. A data sharing subscription renews on a consent-sized item for the price of a used car, and what it moves is the entire contents of an agency’s records system rather than one street corner.

The Board has approved it seven times. Nothing in the public record suggests anyone has asked what is in it.

What we do not know

What you can do

Show up

Systems like this one are approved by boards, councils and committees that meet in public. We have confirmed where each of them meets in Canyon County and how public comment works there.

How to show up in Canyon County →

Protect yourself

Practical steps to shrink your personal data trail. Our guides publish at launch; until then, EFF's Surveillance Self-Defense is the best starting point.

Surveillance Self-Defense →

Sources

  1. 1.
    Canyon County Board of County Commissioners, business proceedings 2019, 3 May 2019, master services agreement no. 19-057 and addendum no. 19-058 · Meeting record · · accessed
  2. 2.
    Canyon County Board of County Commissioners, business proceedings 2020, 14 May 2020, agreement no. 20-078 · Meeting record · · accessed
  3. 3.
    Canyon County Board of County Commissioners, business proceedings 2024, 13 August 2024, agreement no. 24-077 · Meeting record · · accessed
  4. 4.
    Canyon County Board of County Commissioners, business proceedings 2022, 24 May 2022, agreement no. 22-036 · Meeting record · · accessed
  5. 5.
    Canyon County Board of County Commissioners, business proceedings 2023, 30 June 2023, agreement no. 23-072 · Meeting record · · accessed
  6. 6.
    Canyon County Board of County Commissioners, business proceedings 2025, 26 August 2025, agreement no. 25-100 · Meeting record · · accessed

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