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Kootenai County Sheriff | License plate readers

Plate readers entered the county record in 2019 inside a border grant, reached 48 patrol cars in December 2024 on a two to one vote, and lost their funding in August 2025 when the Board asked twice for evidence that they worked.

At a glance

How many
48 patrol vehicles [9]
Price
$24,000 a year [4] [6]
Who approved it
The Board of County Commissioners, two votes to one [2]
How long the data is kept
Not to exceed one year [7]
Who else can see it
The Sheriff told the Board the County had maintained a memorandum of understanding with other law enforcement entities for 16 years. No such document appears in the Board's published record [2]
A written policy
Yes, 14 pages, published by the office [7]
Audits
Required at least monthly by the policy [7]
Where the money came from
County operations, after a federal border grant started it [1]

How it happened

  1. Decision

    A border grant, and a reservation withdrawn

    The Board approves the FY2019 Operation Stonegarden Operations Order and Budget, a Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection grant application worth $83,350.40. The minutes record that "Commissioner Duncan expressed her reservations about the use of automatic license plate readers, but substantially withdrew them after KCSO Lieutenant Matthew McFarland and Information Technology (IT) Network Administrator Grant Kinsey further explained the procedures in place to prevent abuse of the device", and that a senior business analyst "stated that a full audit trail was kept for any use of the license plate reader". Two ayes, one commissioner excused. The agenda item names the grant. It does not name the equipment. [1]

  2. Decision

    Two votes to one, and a second motion

    The Sheriff asks the Board to approve a Motorola contract for plate reader software "which would be used for mobile license plate readers on vehicles", and "stressed the fact that stationary units had been in use in the County for 16 years and there had been no breech in data security or misuse of data". Nine residents and a patrol deputy speak before the vote and five more residents after it, two speakers returning for a second turn. The first motion carries two to one without a requirement for County Legal review; the Chair points that out, and a second motion carries on the same split with "Legal review and the addendum that must be signed stating that the company does not have any ownership interest by China or a Chinese firm". [2]

  3. Procurement

    Surveillance gear from an account the Board does not budget

    At the same meeting a detective asks for "the use of Federal Asset Forfeiture Funds, for electronic surveillance gear for the KCSO Special Investigations Unit. He described their need for the equipment." Approved unanimously. The minutes record no amount, no vendor and no description of the equipment. [2]

  4. Decision

    A new Board amends the contract, and sets a condition

    With Bruce Mattare now Chair and Marc Eberlein newly seated, the Board approves an amendment to the Motorola quote two votes to one, Eberlein voting nay and Duncan moving the motion she had voted against in December. "Commissioner Eberlein indicated that he did not favor the use of the ALPR system. Chair Mattare said he did not favor the mobile units but did not object to the stationary ones." Afterwards the Chair says he seconded on the understanding that "if the BOCC decided in a year that there was no value for data retention after day 0, the adjustment could be made", and that the Board could decline to fund the program the following year "if a case was not made for its retention". [3]

  5. Debate

    The Chair asks for the metrics

    The Sheriff's fiscal 2026 operations budget asks Patrol for an increase of $61,134 covering "50 crowd control kits, ammo/gun supplies, ALPR (Automated License Plate Recognition) subscription-based software, ARCON ADAPTIV training suit, ARCON training mats, Glock blank firing training pistols, travel & training". The Chair "asked whether the Sheriff's Office had metrics to support the ALPR program" and reminded the room the program "had received initial approval with the understanding that data would be provided which showed the difference it had made in the community". [4]

  6. Debate

    Out of the budget

    Commissioner Duncan asks that the $24,000 for plate readers come out of the fiscal 2026 budget. There were six months left on the contract and the Board was still expecting updated information, and she wanted it removed and the contract not renewed in December. The Sheriff objects and says officer safety will suffer. Commissioner Eberlein agrees with Duncan, and with two commissioners in agreement the Finance Director removes the line. [5]

  7. Debate

    Back in, on a deal

    A week later Commissioner Eberlein asks to put the money back. "Chair Mattare said he would stand by his deal to support the funding of the ALPR with the understanding that the Sheriff's Department would present information demonstrating how effective the system was." The Finance Director adds it back in. [10]

  8. Decision

    Out again, and this time for good

    At the budget hearing the Finance Director "received confirmation from Chair Mattare that she could proceed to cut the $24,000 for the LPR (License Plate Reader) from the budget as both Commissioner Duncan and Commissioner Eberlein had requested it". The Chair tells the room the funding has been removed before public testimony begins. Residents speak for and against, one of them thanking the Board for the removal. [6]

  9. Context

    One sentence in a year

    A resident cautions the Board on the usage of license plate readers during public comment. That is the only place the phrase "license plate" appears in all 452 of the Board's published documents dated in 2026. [8]

The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office read license plates for years before the Board of County Commissioners ever voted on it, and the Board took the money away eight months after it finally did.

The first appearance is May 2019, and it is not an agenda item about plate readers. It is the FY2019 Operation Stonegarden Operations Order and Budget, a Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection grant application worth $83,350.40, presented by the county’s Resource Management Office. The equipment appears only in the discussion. Commissioner Leslie Duncan “expressed her reservations about the use of automatic license plate readers, but substantially withdrew them after KCSO Lieutenant Matthew McFarland and Information Technology (IT) Network Administrator Grant Kinsey further explained the procedures in place to prevent abuse of the device”. A senior business analyst came in for two minutes to say that a full audit trail was kept, and left.[1] Kootenai County is not on the Canadian border. Boundary and Bonner counties lie between it and the line.

December 2024

Five and a half years later the Sheriff asked the Board for a Motorola contract to put plate reader software in patrol cars. He told the Board that stationary units “had been in use in the County for 16 years and there had been no breech in data security or misuse of data”.[2]

Nine residents spoke before the vote, along with a patrol deputy. Four of the nine said they were retired law enforcement officers and supported it. One opposed them and protested what he called warrantless surveillance. One “urged that the contract with Motorola include specific restrictions on how long information gathered could be kept and the purposes for which it could be used”.[2]

The vote was two to one, with the Chair against. It was taken twice. The first motion approved the contract with an addendum on Chinese ownership but no requirement for County Legal review; the Chair pointed that out, and the Board moved again, on the same split, adding the legal review.[2]

The Board’s minutes carry no price. The figure everyone used afterwards, in every budget discussion of the program, was $24,000 a year.[5]

The condition

In March 2025 a differently constituted Board approved an amendment to the quote, two to one again, but with the pieces rearranged: the commissioner who had voted against the contract moved the amendment, and the new commissioner voted against it. The new Chair “said he did not favor the mobile units but did not object to the stationary ones”, and after the vote said he had seconded on the understanding that the Board could decline to fund the program the following year “if a case was not made for its retention”.[3]

That was the condition, and the record shows it being tested. In June the Chair “asked whether the Sheriff’s Office had metrics to support the ALPR program”.[4] The subscription sat inside a $61,134 patrol increase alongside fifty crowd control kits, ammunition, training mats and blank firing pistols, which is how a piece of software with no device word in its name travels through a budget.[4]

Ten weeks

The money left the fiscal 2026 budget on 23 July, when Commissioner Duncan asked for the $24,000 out and for the contract not to be renewed in December, and a second commissioner agreed.[5] It came back on 30 July, when the Chair “said he would stand by his deal to support the funding of the ALPR with the understanding that the Sheriff’s Department would present information demonstrating how effective the system was”.[10] It left again on 27 August, at the budget hearing, when the Finance Director “received confirmation from Chair Mattare that she could proceed to cut the $24,000 for the LPR (License Plate Reader) from the budget as both Commissioner Duncan and Commissioner Eberlein had requested it”. The Chair told the room the funding had gone before public testimony began.[6]

The policy, and the silence

The office publishes a fourteen page plate reader use and retention policy manual on its own website. It is a more careful document than most: it assigns responsibility for the program to the Director of the 911 Communications Center rather than to a patrol commander, it requires audits “at least monthly”, and it says the office “will also release to the public the full audit, with redactions as necessary to protect the privacy of any individual or group”. Section J.1 sets the retention: “All ALPR information contained within KCSO’s ALPR system will be stored for a period not to exceed one year. After one year, the information will be automatically purged”.[7] We found no audit published.

What happened after the contract ran out is not in the county’s record at all. Across all 452 published documents of the Board of County Commissioners dated in 2026, every one of which we have read, the phrase “license plate” appears once, in a resident’s public comment on 17 February.[8]

On the map

The community has mapped 13 devices of this type in the county on OpenStreetMap. These are community reports: the vendor and operator of each point are unverified, and none is confirmed to belong to this system. See them on the map →

Street names from reverse geocoding — © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).

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 Kootenai County and how public comment works there.

How to show up in Kootenai 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.
    Kootenai County Board of County Commissioners minutes, 21 May 2019 · Meeting record · · accessed
  2. 2.
    Kootenai County Board of County Commissioners minutes, 23 December 2024 · Meeting record · · accessed
  3. 3.
    Kootenai County Board of County Commissioners minutes, 11 March 2025 · Meeting record · · accessed
  4. 4.
    Kootenai County Board of County Commissioners minutes, 10 June 2025, Sheriff's operations budget · Meeting record · · accessed
  5. 5.
    Kootenai County Board of County Commissioners minutes, 23 July 2025, budget meeting · Meeting record · · accessed
  6. 6.
    Kootenai County Board of County Commissioners minutes, 27 August 2025, budget hearing · Meeting record · · accessed
  7. 7.
    Kootenai County Sheriff's Office, Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) Use and Retention Policy Manual · Primary document · accessed
  8. 8.
    Kootenai County Board of County Commissioners minutes, 17 February 2026 · Meeting record · · accessed
  9. 9.
    EFF Atlas of Surveillance entry AOS004622, citing the Coeur d'Alene Press of 24 December 2024 · Dataset · accessed
  10. 10.
    Kootenai County Board of County Commissioners minutes, 30 July 2025, budget meeting · Meeting record · · accessed

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