The Moscow Police Department released their 2025 annual report in April, reporting 2.86% decrease in crime from 2024, though changes to the jail system have put a strain on the police force, according to MPD Chief Anthony Dahlinger.
In October 2025, the Latah County Jail was closed due to its poor building structure failing inspections from the Moscow Fire Department and Idaho Sheriffs Association. Due to this change, all criminal arrests since were transported to the Nez Perce County Sheriff’s Office in Lewiston.
Due to the added commuting time, this increased officer work hours, subsequently increasing manpower costs for Moscow taxpayers.
From October to December, Dahlinger said that MPD spent over $17,000 to pay for these transports to Lewiston. This number includes overtime costs but does not include fuel costs.
Patrol officers now work 12-hour shifts that run from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Another pressing issue for the department in 2025 was a 22% reduction in their force, including some new hires. This means that for the majority of 2025, there were only three3 officers on duty on each shift for about 27,000 residents.
“While we were fortunate to welcome several new officers into our police family,” Dahlinger wrote in the annual report. “We lost just as many.”.
Moscow PD employs 28 sworn officers; Dahlinger wants to hire enough officers in 2026 to remove the on-call schedule and revert to 10-hour shifts, according to an article by the Moscow Pullman Daily News.
In 2025, there were 712 offenses committed, with MPD receiving a total of 11,199 calls. This is a 2.86% decrease in crime from 2024, where there were 733 total offenses.
Within these offenses, crimes against persons and crimes against property rose by 1.04% and 0.23% respectively, while crime against society decreased by 11.11%
Arrests, however, increased this year by 1.28% to 474, up from 468 in 2024. 17 people were arrested for burglary, 69 people were arrested for larceny, 36 were arrested for simple assault, with over 90 drug related violation arrests, 108 DUIs and 81 liquor law violations.
During 2025, MPD also seized over 1,000 grams of drugs, including 728 grams of marijuana and 252 fentanyl pills plus 46 additional grams, and 231.8 grams of methamphetamines.
Marijuana seizure has been decreasing since a peak of 1,117 grams seized in 2023, while methamphetamine and fentanyl are higher than the 2023 and 2024 number of seizures, but remain lower than 2022 numbers.
MPD also has a “party patrol” unit where teams of two plainclothes officers patrol to uncover alcohol violations. The numbers for those citations are
twenty-eight minors in possession or consuming alcohol, five possessions of marijuana, four possessions of paraphernalia, two providing false information to an officer and one driving under the influence.
The 2025 MPD annual report also highlighted efforts made by officers. Officer Kris Sneve was awarded Officer of the Year for routinely demonstrating a strong commitment to public safety and representing himself and the department with professionalism. Sneve also won the top DUI award. Of the 108 DUI arrests, Sneve made 52 of those himself.
Some other highlights include years of service milestone from Capt. Dustin Blaker for 25 years of service, Officer Eric Warner for 10 years of service and Scott Springer for 5 years of service, as well as service staff member of the year, Tim Smalldrige.
Emily Morales can be reached at [email protected].