KOOTENAI COUNTY, Idaho — The Kootenai County Sheriff's Office is upgrading how it patrols on the water. It's a change 19 years in the making.
It's all hands on deck aboard Kootenai County's Sheriff's Office patrol boat while training with a new sonar system.
It's known as a Toad Sidescan Sonar Unit. Dive teams say it can scan deeper and deliver better imagery of what they've had in the past.
Sergeant Ryan Miller with the sheriff's office says the upgrade couldn't have come sooner.
"We are very busy. We have for years. Kootenai County led in injury crashes and fatal crashes and people missing along the waterway," said Miller.
The full-time dive team became a reality in 2006 in response to the drowning death of realtor Gary Fox. The equipment bought back then was in desperate need of an