Crime in Idaho 2026
Crime in Idaho in 2026 presents a genuinely unusual national picture: the state consistently ranks among the safest in America for overall crime, yet it was also the site of one of 2025’s most shocking targeted attacks on first responders — the Coeur d’Alene firefighter ambush that killed two battalion chiefs and reignited national conversation about violence against emergency personnel. Most recently, on August 1, 2026, a mass shooting at an In-N-Out Burger restaurant in Twin Falls left at least 3 people dead and 5 to 7 injured, with the gunman also confirmed dead. Idaho’s violent crime rate of 231 per 100,000 residents in 2024 sat 35.8% below the national average, and its property crime rate was 58.2% lower than the rest of the country, placing Idaho 37th nationally for violent crime and dead last (safest) for property crime among all 50 states. At the same time, Idaho’s firearm death rate runs 24.2% higher than the national average, reflecting the state’s high gun-ownership culture and its outsized share of gun suicides relative to homicides.
This report compiles the key verified statistics on crime in Idaho in 2026, covering the Idaho State Police’s newly released 2025 Crime in Idaho Report, county-level crime data, gun violence and firearm death statistics, and a detailed account of the June 2025 Coeur d’Alene shooting and the August 2026 Twin Falls shooting, the latter still a developing incident covered in full below. Sources include the Idaho State Police Bureau of Criminal Identification, the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, USAFacts, SafeWise’s 2026 Safest Cities report, and contemporaneous news coverage of both shootings. Because Idaho’s full 2025 NIBRS-based crime data was released via an interactive dashboard rather than a single static report, several figures below reflect the most recent full-year (2024) confirmed data alongside preliminary 2025-2026 trend indicators.
Twin Falls In-N-Out Shooting in Idaho
| Incident Metric | Data Point (as of this writing) |
|---|---|
| Date and location | August 1, 2026, In-N-Out Burger restaurant, Twin Falls, Idaho |
| Time shooting began | ~2:30 PM MDT Saturday |
| Confirmed deaths | At least 3, plus the gunman — some early tracking puts the total at 4 including the perpetrator |
| Injured | Reports range 5 to 7 people hurt, some critically |
| Suspect status | Dead at the scene, apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound |
| Suspect identity/motive | Not yet publicly confirmed; under FBI and ATF investigation |
| Additional location affected | Shots also reported fired at the nearby Twin Falls Visitors Center |
| Hospital receiving victims | St. Luke’s Magic Valley Medical Center |
| City population, Twin Falls | ~56,000 |
| Distance from Boise | ~130 miles southeast |
Source: Twin Falls Police Department press briefings; Associated Press, CBS News, CNN, NBC News, Al Jazeera reporting, August 1–2, 2026
This is an actively developing incident, and the figures above should be treated as provisional rather than final. Twin Falls Police Chief Matthew Hicks told reporters Saturday evening that authorities were still working to notify victims’ next of kin before releasing an exact, confirmed death toll, and different outlets have reported slightly different totals — a pattern typical of the first 24 hours after a mass-casualty event. What is confirmed: police describe the scene as “very chaotic,” hundreds of people who were in the area at the time are being interviewed, and officials “believe the threat to the community is over,” with the sole suspected shooter dead at the scene. This single incident alone represents a significant share of Idaho’s typical annual gun violence toll documented elsewhere in this report, underscoring how dramatically a single event can shift a state’s year-over-year statistics.
Interesting Facts About Crime in Idaho 2026
| Fact Category | Key Data Point |
|---|---|
| Idaho violent crime rate (2024) | 231 per 100,000 — 35.8% below the national average |
| Idaho property crime rate (2024) | 736 per 100,000 — 58.2% below the national average |
| Idaho’s national rank, violent crime rate | 37th of 50 states |
| Idaho’s national rank, property crime rate | Lowest (safest) of 50 states |
| Idaho homicide rate (2024) | ~2.0 per 100,000 — among the lowest in the nation |
| Idaho firearm death rate (2024) | 15.9 per 100,000 — 24.2% higher than the national average |
| Idaho firearm ownership rate | 60.1 guns per 100 residents — 5th highest of any state |
| Average annual Idaho gun deaths (all causes) | 331 people |
| Average annual Idaho gunshot injuries | 256 people |
| County-level average total crime rate | 1,027 per 100,000 — 56% below the national county benchmark |
| Idahoans who reported feeling safe (SafeWise 2026) | 69% — 3rd highest confidence level nationwide |
| Firefighters killed in the June 29, 2025 Coeur d’Alene ambush | 2 (plus the perpetrator, who died by suicide) |
Source: Idaho State Police Bureau of Criminal Identification; FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program via USAFacts; SafeWise 2026 Safest Cities report; CrimeByCounty.com; Everytown Research; 2025 Coeur d’Alene shooting reporting, 2025–2026
The numbers above paint a genuinely two-sided portrait of public safety in Idaho. On one hand, the state’s overall crime rate ranks among the lowest in the country, with property crime specifically holding the lowest rate of any US state — a distinction Idaho has maintained for multiple consecutive years. On the other hand, Idaho’s firearm death rate runs a quarter higher than the national average, a gap driven overwhelmingly by the state’s elevated gun suicide rate rather than homicide, since Idaho’s actual homicide rate remains one of the lowest in America at approximately 2.0 per 100,000.
What stands out most for a state with such consistently low headline crime numbers is the events of June 29, 2025, when a lone gunman deliberately set a wildfire on Canfield Mountain outside Coeur d’Alene to lure first responders into an ambush, killing two battalion chiefs and critically wounding a third firefighter. That single incident, covered later in this article in full detail, briefly made Idaho the center of national news coverage on violence against emergency responders — a stark contrast to the state’s overall reputation as one of America’s safest places to live.
Idaho Crime Rate vs. National Average 2026
IDAHO CRIME RATES VS. NATIONAL AVERAGE (2024, per 100,000 residents)
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Violent Crime
Idaho ████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 231
National Avg ███████████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 359.9
Property Crime
Idaho ███████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 736
National Avg █████████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 1,760.1
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
| Metric | Idaho (2024) | National Average (2024) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crime rate (per 100,000) | 231 | 359.1 | -35.8% |
| Property crime rate (per 100,000) | 736 | 1,760.1 | -58.2% |
| National violent crime rank | 37th (lower rank = lower crime among the states listed) | — | — |
| National property crime rank | 50th (lowest/safest) | — | — |
| Share of Idaho violent crime that is aggravated assault | 76.9% | — | — |
| Share of Idaho violent crime that is rape | 19.4% | — | — |
| Share of Idaho violent crime that is robbery | 3.1% | — | — |
| Share of Idaho violent crime that is murder | 0.69% | — | — |
| Share of Idaho property crime that is larceny-theft | 75.1% | — | — |
| Share of Idaho property crime that is burglary | 15.8% | — | — |
| Share of Idaho property crime that is motor vehicle theft | 9.2% | — | — |
Source: USAFacts, “What is the crime rate in Idaho?” (FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program data), updated June 2026
Idaho’s crime composition looks quite different from the national picture in one key respect: aggravated assault accounts for a full 76.9% of all violent crime in the state, an even higher concentration than the roughly 71% share aggravated assault represents nationally. This suggests that Idaho’s relatively low overall violent crime rate is driven primarily by genuinely rare murder and robbery — at just 0.69% and 3.1% of violent crime respectively — rather than any single category being disproportionately suppressed.
On the property crime side, Idaho mirrors the national pattern where larceny-theft dominates, accounting for 75.1% of all property offenses. What distinguishes Idaho is the sheer magnitude of its advantage: a property crime rate of 736 per 100,000 compares to a national rate of 1,760.1 per 100,000 in the same year, meaning a resident of the average US state faces roughly 2.4 times the property crime risk of a resident of Idaho.
Idaho County-Level Crime Data 2026
| County Metric | Data Point |
|---|---|
| Total number of Idaho counties tracked | 44 |
| Counties with full or partial FBI UCR coverage | 44 of 44 |
| Reporting law enforcement agencies represented | 106 |
| Average county-level total crime rate | 1,027.0 per 100,000 |
| Comparison to national county benchmark | 56% below national average |
| County with the lowest crime rate | Franklin County — 389.6 per 100,000 |
| County with the highest crime rate | Clark County — 2,513.3 per 100,000 |
Source: CrimeByCounty.com, FBI Uniform Crime Reporting data compilation, 2026
The 44-county breakdown of Idaho crime reveals substantial internal variation even within a state that ranks favorably nationwide. Franklin County, a small rural county in southeastern Idaho, records the state’s lowest total crime rate at 389.6 per 100,000 — less than 16% of the statewide average for the highest-crime county. At the other end, Clark County’s rate of 2,513.3 per 100,000 stands out as a striking outlier, though researchers caution that per-capita rates in Idaho’s smallest, most sparsely populated counties can swing dramatically based on a relatively small number of incidents, making single-county comparisons less statistically stable than the broader statewide figures.
With 106 reporting agencies contributing data across all 44 counties, Idaho’s crime reporting infrastructure has achieved essentially complete FBI Uniform Crime Reporting coverage, a meaningful data-quality advantage compared to states where voluntary agency participation leaves gaps in statewide crime pictures. This comprehensive coverage is part of why Idaho’s statewide figures — showing a county average 56% below the national county benchmark — are considered a reliable representation of the state’s actual crime landscape rather than an artifact of incomplete reporting.
The 2025 Coeur d’Alene Firefighter Ambush Shooting
| Incident Metric | Data Point |
|---|---|
| Date and location | June 29, 2025, Canfield Mountain, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho |
| Method | Intentionally set brush fire used to lure first responders into an ambush |
| Perpetrator | Wess Val Roley, age 20 |
| Weapon used | 12-gauge Mossberg Maverick 88 pump-action shotgun |
| Firefighters killed | 2 — Battalion Chiefs Frank Harwood (age 42) and John Morrison (age 52) |
| Firefighter critically injured | 1 — Engineer David Tysdal |
| Total deaths (including perpetrator) | 3 |
| Officers involved in the manhunt | 300+ local, state, and federal officers |
| Manhunt duration | ~5 hours |
| Wildfire acreage burned (Nettleton Gulch Fire) | ~23 acres |
| Perpetrator’s cause of death | Apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound |
Source: Wikipedia summary of AP, Reuters, and CBS press reporting on the 2025 Coeur d’Alene shooting; Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office statements, June–July 2025
The Coeur d’Alene ambush stands as one of the most calculated attacks on first responders in recent American history, distinguished by the fact that the fire itself was the weapon used to lure victims into a kill zone. Kootenai County Sheriff Robert Norris described the incident as “a total ambush” on unarmed firefighters, and investigators have never established a clear motive for Wess Val Roley’s actions, despite reports that he grew up in an arborist family with tree-climbing experience that may have aided his ability to position himself for the attack. The scale of the law enforcement response — more than 300 officers conducting a five-hour manhunt across steep, timbered terrain — reflects both the severity of the threat and the difficulty of securing a large wildland area against an active shooter.
Battalion Chief Frank Harwood, a 17-year member of Kootenai County Fire and Rescue and former Army National Guard combat engineer, and Battalion Chief John Morrison, who served the Coeur d’Alene Fire Department for more than 28 years, were both killed in the initial exchange of gunfire. Congressman Russ Fulcher honored both men on the House floor in July 2025, describing the attack as something that “does not represent the Idaho way.” The incident has been cited nationally, alongside a broader pattern tracked by fire service organizations, as part of a documented rise in assaults against fire and EMS personnel responding to calls — a trend that has prompted renewed safety protocol discussions among fire departments well beyond Idaho’s borders.
Idaho Gun Violence and Firearm Statistics 2026
| Firearm Metric | Data Point |
|---|---|
| Idaho gun ownership rate | 60.1 guns per 100 residents |
| National rank for gun ownership | 5th highest, behind Wyoming, Montana, Alaska, and West Virginia |
| Average annual Idaho gun deaths (all causes) | 331 people |
| Average annual Idaho gunshot injuries | 256 people |
| Idaho gun death rate (2024) | 15.9 per 100,000 |
| Idaho gun death rate vs. national average | 24.2% higher |
| Idaho motor vehicle death rate (2024), for comparison | ~13 per 100,000 |
| Idaho gun violence incidents tracked (past year, ZeroEyes) | 8 incidents, 10 fatalities |
Source: USAFacts, “How many people die from gun-related injuries in Idaho each year?” updated March 2026; Self Reliance Central Gun Violence Statistics 2026; Everytown Research; ZeroEyes Gun Violence Research Center
Idaho’s relationship with firearms sits at an important intersection worth unpacking carefully: the state combines a very high rate of gun ownership — 5th highest in the nation at over 60 guns per 100 residents — with a firearm death rate that runs a quarter above the national average, even though the state’s actual homicide rate remains comparatively low. The explanation lies almost entirely in suicide, which drives the overwhelming majority of gun deaths in states with high rural populations, elevated firearm ownership, and limited rural mental health infrastructure — a pattern Everytown Research has specifically flagged for Idaho, projecting that matching the gun-death rate of the ten states with the strongest gun safety laws could save an estimated 2,646 lives in Idaho over the next decade.
The comparison between Idaho’s gun death rate (15.9 per 100,000) and its motor vehicle death rate (approximately 13 per 100,000) in the same year is a useful, if sobering, benchmark: for the average Idahoan, a firearm-related death is now statistically more likely than dying in a car accident, a threshold that public health researchers consider a significant marker when assessing a state’s overall injury landscape.
Idaho’s Safest Cities and Community Safety Perceptions 2026
| Safety Metric (SafeWise 2026) | Data Point |
|---|---|
| Idaho’s safest city | Weiser |
| Statewide violent crime rate | 2.54 incidents per 1,000 residents |
| Statewide property crime rate | 9.67 incidents per 1,000 residents — lowest in the nation |
| Change in property crime rate vs. prior year | Up slightly from 9.5 to 9.67 per 1,000 |
| Idahoans who feel safe in their state | 69% — 3rd highest confidence nationally |
| Change from prior year (feeling safe) | Down slightly from 70% |
| Idahoans who worry about crime daily | 37% — below the national average of 46% |
| Safest cities reporting zero robberies | 70% of Idaho’s top 10 safest cities |
| Safest cities reporting zero rapes | 50% of Idaho’s top 10 safest cities |
| Boise’s crime rate vs. national average (2026) | 42% below national average |
| Boise’s rank vs. major US cities | Lower crime than 80% of major US cities |
Source: SafeWise “Idaho’s Safest Cities of 2026” report; DoorProfit Boise, ID Crime Rate report, updated July 2026
Idaho’s 2026 Safest Cities report from SafeWise highlights Weiser as the state’s top-ranked community, notable for an unusual pattern where the town actually recorded more violent crime than property crime this year — the opposite of typical trends — thanks to an exceptionally low property crime rate. More broadly, three of Idaho’s ten safest cities — Weiser, Preston, and Rathdrum — posted year-over-year decreases in both violent and property crime simultaneously, while Meridian, with a population exceeding 140,000, demonstrated that even larger Idaho cities can maintain strong per-capita safety records.
Public perception data reinforces the statistical picture: 69% of Idahoans report feeling safe in their state, the third-highest confidence level of any state in SafeWise’s national survey, even as that figure ticked down slightly from 70% the prior year. Idaho residents also report worrying about crime less frequently than the national average — 37% report daily worry compared to 46% nationally — suggesting that Idahoans’ lived sense of safety broadly tracks the state’s genuinely favorable crime statistics, even in a year that included the high-profile Coeur d’Alene tragedy. For broader national context on how firearm-related violence compares across the country, our Gun Violence Statistics in U.S coverage documents that the US recorded 46,728 total firearm deaths in 2023 alone, providing useful scale for understanding where Idaho’s numbers fit within the broader national picture.
Idaho Crime Trends: Recent Historical Data 2026
| Year Metric (Most Recent Confirmed Data) | Data Point |
|---|---|
| Statewide crime incidents, 2022 vs. 2021 | -4.4% |
| Violent crimes, 2022 | 4,715 reported |
| Violent crime change, 2022 vs. 2021 | +8.8% |
| Aggravated assault change, 2022 vs. 2021 | +~15% |
| Homicides, 2022 | 51 — five-year high at the time |
| Human trafficking incidents, 2021 | 7 |
| Human trafficking incidents, 2022 | 36 |
| Hate crimes, 2022 | 50, up from 47 in 2021 |
| Ada County overall crime change, 2022 | -9% — a five-year low |
| Statewide theft decline (SafeHome.org, recent years) | -41%, from 27,606 to 16,295 incidents |
| Larceny’s share of Idaho property offenses | ~72% |
Source: Idaho State Police 2022 Crime in Idaho Report, via Yahoo News coverage; SafeHome.org Idaho Home Security and Property Crime Statistics, February 2026
Idaho’s crime trajectory over recent years shows a pattern common to many states following the pandemic era: an overall decline in total crime incidents masking a more troubling rise in specific violent crime categories during 2022, when homicides hit a five-year high of 51 and aggravated assaults jumped nearly 15% even as total crime incidents fell 4.4% statewide. The human trafficking figure stands out as the most dramatic single-category change in that dataset — a more than fivefold increase from 7 incidents in 2021 to 36 in 2022 — though officials attributed much of this jump to improved detection and reporting practices for commercial sex trafficking cases involving adult women, rather than a straightforward surge in underlying trafficking activity.
More recent data points to continued improvement in property crime specifically: SafeHome.org’s analysis found Idaho theft incidents dropping 41%, from 27,606 to 16,295 across the years tracked, reinforcing the state’s consistent property-crime advantage documented throughout this article. For readers interested in how these local Idaho patterns compare against the sharp nationwide decline in violent crime documented across major US cities in 2025, our related coverage of the Violent Crime Rate in US reports that the national violent crime rate fell to 359.1 per 100,000 in 2024 — the lowest level recorded in approximately 20 years — providing useful context for the broader trend Idaho’s own numbers are part of.
Idaho Homicide Data in National Context 2026
| Homicide Metric | Data Point |
|---|---|
| Idaho homicide rate (2024) | ~2.0 per 100,000 |
| National homicide rate (2024) | 5.0 per 100,000 |
| Idaho’s standing relative to national rate | Approximately 60% lower |
| States with lower homicide rates than Idaho | New Hampshire (~1.0), Hawaii (~1.8) |
| Highest-homicide state for comparison (Mississippi) | ~18.6–19.7 per 100,000 |
| Idaho homicides, 2022 (most recent detailed annual count) | 51 |
Source: The Global Statistics Homicide Rate Statistics in the U.S. 2025 report, citing FBI UCR and CDC WONDER data; Idaho State Police 2022 Crime in Idaho Report
Placed alongside the rest of the country, Idaho’s homicide rate of approximately 2.0 per 100,000 puts it firmly among the safest handful of states in America — trailing only New Hampshire and Hawaii among the states with the very lowest confirmed rates, and standing at roughly 60% below the 2024 national rate of 5.0 per 100,000. This places Idaho’s homicide risk profile closer to that of New England than to its Mountain West and Southern peers, several of which — including neighboring states with comparably high gun-ownership rates — report homicide rates several times higher than Idaho’s own. For a full breakdown of how homicide rates, weapon types, and clearance rates have shifted nationally through 2026, our companion report on Homicide Rate Statistics in the US documents the broader three-year national decline in lethal violence that forms the backdrop against which Idaho’s consistently low numbers should be read.
The contrast between Idaho’s low homicide rate and its elevated overall firearm death rate, detailed earlier in this article, is the single most important nuance for understanding crime and safety in the state: Idaho is not a dangerous place in terms of interpersonal violence between strangers, but its firearm mortality burden — driven overwhelmingly by suicide — remains a genuine public health concern that exists somewhat independently of the state’s favorable crime statistics.
Data Reliability Notes for Idaho Crime Statistics 2026
| Category | Status as of 2026 |
|---|---|
| Full 2025 statewide NIBRS crime report | Released July 29, 2026, via interactive dashboard rather than static annual figures |
| Most complete confirmed annual data currently available | 2024 (FBI UCR / USAFacts); partial 2022 detail (ISP annual report) |
| County-level 2026 data | Reflects ongoing agency submissions; smaller counties show higher rate volatility |
| Discrepancies between crime-rate sources | Some private analytics sites report different Idaho-vs-national comparisons than official FBI-sourced data; this report prioritizes FBI UCR and Idaho State Police sources |
Source: Cross-referenced Idaho State Police, FBI UCR, and independent crime-analytics data, current as of mid-2026
Because Idaho’s 2025 Crime in Idaho Report was published as a searchable, continuously updated dashboard rather than a single downloadable annual figure set, several statistics in this report reflect the most recent fully confirmed 2024 data rather than complete 2025 final totals. Readers should also be aware that different data providers occasionally report conflicting Idaho-versus-national comparisons depending on methodology; this report prioritizes figures sourced directly from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program and the Idaho State Police Bureau of Criminal Identification wherever both were available.
Disclaimer: The data research report we present here is based on information found from various sources. We are not liable for any financial loss, errors, or damages of any kind that may result from the use of the information herein. We acknowledge that though we try to report accurately, we cannot verify the absolute facts of everything that has been represented.
