Coeur d'Alene Police Department breaks ground on $6.2 million expansion

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho -- The Coeur d'Alene Police Department broke ground on a new expansion at its headquarters on Wednesday afternoon.

The CDA Police Department first opened in 1999 with roughly 75 employees. Today, the department has over 120 employees, all housed in the original building.

According to CDAPD, the $6.2 million expansion will allow law enforcement to better respond to emergencies and keep the community safe.

"It's going to increase our efficiency and our time management use. Our folks will be prepared," said CDAPD Captain Dave Hagar.

Since 1999, CDA's population has grown from about 34,000 to now 58,000, and police are busy trying to keep up.

"There's different ways to staff police departments," said Captain Hagar. "A lot of people look at the number of officers per thousand. We look at the ability for the police department to respond for calls for service, and we don't want to be tied just to what we call 'chasing the radio.'"

A feature of the expansion is an emergency operations center, which will act as a central place for first responders to work together under one roof during an emergency.

"When we have our wind events and we have the large events that we have down here, 4th of July and those types of things, we work with our fire department, our streets department, and we can all be in one area to command those things," said Captain Hagar.

Construction is set to finish by March 2025.

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