After staff shooting, Idaho DOC seeks tech, transport upgrades and body‑worn camera pilot

The Idaho Department of Correction told the Joint Finance Preparations Committee that a spring incident in which a staff transport was ambushed prompted a package of security proposals, including mail digitization, drone detection, phone-call transcription and a permanent expansion of the transport bureau.

Noah Peterson, budget and policy analyst for the Legislative Services Office, described the incident and the agency’s proposed mitigations. He told the committee that funds requested for fiscal 2025 include an initial $795,000 to implement “digital mail scanning, drone detection and then phone call transcription and analysis” after the ambush. He said the full-year ongoing costs for those technologies would total about $2.397 million.

Why it matters: The agency said sophisticated methods to introduce contraband—autonomous drones and altered print materials—have increased the risk to staff and incarcerated…