Eye on crime
POST FALLS - Police cameras along Interstate 90 recognizing license plates of stolen vehicles continue to result in additional charges, including drug trafficking.
Post Falls officers netted 275 grams of marijuana and $2,100 in cash after stopping suspect Nikolas Gross, 32, Des Moines, Wash., in a Subaru Outback on Tuesday night, according to police reports.
The camera system alerted dispatchers as Gross passed through the Post Falls area on eastbound I-90.
It turned out, however, that only the license plates on the Outback, not the vehicle itself, were allegedly stolen, Post Falls Police Capt. Pat Knight said.
"These cameras continue to be a great tool for us," Knight said, adding that a couple arrests for stolen vehicles and other charges are made each month thanks to the system. "But when it will really pay off is when there is an Amber alert and it saves someone's life."
Gross was booked into Kootenai County jail on charges of possession of marijuana with intent to deliver, drug paraphernalia and stolen property.
He was being held on Wednesday on a $25,900 bond.
The plates were allegedly stolen in the Seattle area. The drugs were in several bags and jars.
In another incident following a BOSS camera hit on I-90 on Wednesday morning, two teens were arrested by a Kootenai County Sheriff's deputy at the eastbound Huetter rest stop.
The driver, Billy Jo Dalager, 18, Spokane, was arrested for possession of a stolen vehicle, a 2005 Kia Spectra that was stolen in Coeur d'Alene on Oct. 18, and three counts of drug paraphernalia.
A 16-year-old male from Kalispell, Mont., was also arrested for possession of marijuana. The two were arrested without incident.
In addition to the cameras installed in the I-90 corridor that recognize plates of stolen vehicles, the Post Falls and Coeur d'Alene police departments and Kootenai County each have had a patrol car for several years that has license recognition cameras on the light bar of the vehicles.
The camera systems on I-90 and on cars were funded with a $150,000 Homeland Security grant.
Post Falls spent $6,000 to upgrade its mobile system this summer to a thinner, more low profile setup. After residents questioned what the cameras were for, the agency noted the vehicle with red letters on its front fender as the one with the license recognition system.
"Instead of getting more questions, we thought we'd just advertise what it is," Knight said.
The cameras on the vehicles are used in areas such as large parking lots and can also be used in cases such as when suspect vehicle descriptions have been obtained.