Ada County is growing fast. Is it also getting more dangerous?

In our Reality Check stories, Idaho Statesman journalists seek to hold the powerful accountable and find answers to critical questions in our community. Read more. Story idea? Tips@idahostatesman.com.

During a presentation in June, Ada County Sheriff Matt Clifford told county commissioners his office’s workload was on the rise. He cited a nearly 25% increase in crime since 2019 in his office’s jurisdiction, a steeply rising number of deputies assaulted while on patrol and in the jail, and initial results of an Idaho Policy Institute survey that found about 20% of Ada County residents feel “less safe.”

As the county’s population grows, “our communities are becoming more dangerous,” he said. He attributed the changes to “unrest at the national level” and the area’s “changing demographic.”

“This is not the same community that we grew up in,” he said.

But the Boise and Meridian police departments aren’t seeing an uptick in their own jurisdictions’ crime rates, and the number of recorded crimes committed in all of Ada County has dropped since 2019. So, what did Clifford mean by “dangerous,” and what might explain this discrepancy?

Chris Saunders, the data and analytics manager for the Sheriff’s Office, chalked up much of the difference to whether one looks at the overall number of crimes committed, or the crime rate based on population.

The Ada County Sheriff’s Office’s deputies patrol unincorporated Ada County and three cities that contract with the sheriff for police coverage: Eagle, Kuna and Star. The crime rate — the number of crimes committed for every 100,000 people — in that jurisdiction has been relatively stable, with a slight uptick between 2019 and 2023 , according to annual reports by the Idaho State Police.

But paired with rapid population growth, that adds up to more crimes being committed overall, Saunders said.

In 2019, the Sheriff’s office documented 2,977 overall offenses in the areas it patrols; in 2023, that number was up to 3,710, according to State Police reports. That means more reports to write, more documents to file and more court cases to attend, Saunders said.

“It’s as much a workload measure … as it is an acknowledgment of, there’s just more crime happening here,” he said. “As more people get here, we have more people to commit the crimes.”

As for what “dangerous” means, that’s “really going to be individually defined” based on what kinds of crimes county residents see as the greatest threat to their communities, Saunders said. His office has seen the biggest uptick in recent years in drug-related crimes, and a smaller increase in crimes taking place between two individuals, like assault.

Property crimes like theft, meanwhile, are actually decreasing, so “you’re less likely to have your house broken into, you’re less likely to have your car broken into, and you’re less likely to be the victim of fraud” than in recent years, he said.

Crime is dropping in Boise, Meridian, Ada County overall

But data from Boise and Meridian shows a different picture. Each jurisdiction’s crime rate per 100,000 people has dropped substantially since 2019 : Boise’s by nearly 50%, and Meridian’s by nearly 30%.

And despite their population growth, both Boise and Meridian are seeing gradual decreases in overall crime. Boise’s total crime has dropped from over 12,000 total offenses in 2019 to around 10,000 in 2023. Meridian has seen its total offenses drop from about 4,500 in 2019 to about 3,800 in 2023. Total offenses in Ada County dropped from about 21,000 to 19,000 in the same period.

Saunders said this discrepancy could be explained by variation in the areas each department serves, as well as each department’s capacity and division of labor. The Boise’s Police Department, for example, serves one contiguous environment, while the Sheriff’s Office’s jurisdiction is “all over the place.”

The Sheriff’s Office has more officers than its Boise or Meridian counterparts: 325 commissioned deputies to Boise’s nearly 300 sworn officers and Meridian’s nearly 150 .

The Sheriff’s Office — “one of the only (law enforcement) agencies in the county that’s for all intents and purposes fully staffed,” Saunders said — also has the capacity to take a proactive approach to policing, which can lead to higher crime rates as more existing crime is discovered. For example, conducting more traffic stops may allow officers to discover more people in possession of drugs.

Meridian Police Chief Tracy Basterrechea offered a different interpretation. He said his department targets spending 60% of its time on proactive policing, including spending time in parks or local businesses talking with residents. From his perspective, proactive policing contributes to lower crime as police make their presence known, convincing would-be criminals that they should be “moving on.”

One-third of Boise police officers focus on proactive community outreach and problem-solving, according to a 2023 report from the department. The other two-thirds are divided between patrol and criminal investigations.

Another contributing factor, Saunders said, is that the Boise Police Department receives many more calls for service than its more suburban counterparts, given its population-dense jurisdiction. Comparing the Sheriff’s Office’s approach with that of the Boise Police Department means comparing “apples and oranges,” he said.

More officers assaulted on duty in some communities

One of Clifford’s concerns raised in the June presentation was a spike in assaults on his deputies, both on patrol and at the county jail. In 2023, the sheriff’s jurisdiction recorded 27 assaults on officers, compared with nine in 2019. Meridian, too, saw an increase in that period.

Boise recorded a decrease from 94 officers assaulted in 2019 to 72 in 2023, but “anecdotally,” department spokesperson Haley Williams told the Statesman, the department is seeing “an increase in the number of times that officers encounter people willing to use force, deadly force or weapons against officers in the course of their duties.”

In April, Sheriff’s Deputy Tobin Bolter was fatally shot during a traffic stop — the first sheriff’s deputy to be killed in the line of duty, the Statesman previously reported.

Records shed light on Boise man suspected of killing Ada County sheriff’s deputy

A ‘trademark smile’ and ‘sincere faith’: Looking at the life of slain Ada County deputy

‘This kid is so happy to be here.’ Hundreds remember slain Ada County sheriff’s deputy