Moscow Police Department Feels Strain of Inmate Transfers to Lewiston, Chief Tells City Council
MOSCOW, Idaho — The Moscow Police Department is facing mounting budget pressures and staffing challenges tied in part to a regional jail policy change that is sending inmates more than 30 miles away to Lewiston for housing, Moscow Police Chief Anthony Dahlinger told the Moscow City Council during a presentation of the department’s 2025 annual report.
Dahlinger walked council members through the agency’s performance data and operational challenges Monday, with one of the central issues being Latah County’s decision last October to stop housing inmates locally. Since that change took effect, individuals taken into custody by Moscow officers have been transported to the Nez Perce County Jail in Lewiston — a shift that is adding time, manpower, and cost to every arrest made in Moscow.
Overtime Costs and Operational Pressure Mount
The financial impact is already visible in the department’s books. From October through December, Moscow Police spent approximately $17,000 — roughly 15 percent of the operational division’s overtime budget — solely on inmate transportation to Lewiston. Dahlinger noted that the full scope of additional costs, including fuel and vehicle maintenance, has not yet been fully calculated.
Because of low staffing levels, the department has moved to an on-call system. When an arrest is made, officers are frequently called back on their days off either to handle the transport to Lewiston or to remain in Moscow and cover the city while others make the trip. Officers are currently working 12-hour shifts on a rotating schedule — three days on, three days off, followed by four days on and four days off.
City Councilor Scott Summer raised the question of whether the added burden of transporting inmates has begun to affect officers’ decisions about whether to make arrests in the first place. Dahlinger pushed back firmly on that concern.
“We have not backed down on our efforts to make sure that our community is safe and holding people accountable when they need to be,” Dahlinger said.
For a full look at recent arrest and incident activity from the department, see the Moscow Police Log from Thursday, April 13, 2026.
Staffing Shortages and Recruitment Challenges Persist
The department currently has 28 sworn officers, but three specialty positions remain unfilled: a general detective, a narcotics detective, and a traffic officer. Those vacancies leave the department stretched thinner than officials would prefer, particularly as demands on patrol officers increase due to the transportation requirement.
Recruitment remains a persistent challenge, though Dahlinger was careful to note that Moscow is far from alone in struggling to attract qualified candidates. Law enforcement agencies across the country are dealing with similar headwinds, including long hours, overnight and holiday shifts, pay that often lags behind private-sector opportunities, and repeated exposure to traumatic situations on the job.
Those factors have made it difficult for departments large and small to build and maintain adequate staffing levels — a reality that places additional strain on existing officers who are already absorbing extra overtime and on-call responsibilities.
Despite the challenges, Dahlinger reported signs of improvement on the recruitment front. He said efforts to attract new officers are beginning to show results, with an increase in both the number and quality of applicants coming through the pipeline. For broader context on how staffing and public safety issues are playing out across the state, readers can follow ongoing coverage at Idaho News.
What Comes Next
Dahlinger made clear that the department’s priorities have not shifted despite the financial and staffing pressures it faces. Moscow Police will continue working to fill the three vacant specialty positions while sustaining patrol coverage across the city. The chief said recruitment efforts will remain a top focus, with the goal of building a department capable of handling the demands placed on it — including the added logistics created by the regional jail transfer policy. The full financial impact of those transfers, including fuel and maintenance figures, is expected to come into clearer focus as more data is collected in the months ahead.