Idaho Police Reports: How to Get a Crash Report or Incident Report

Idaho gives crash-involved drivers, their legal representatives, and their insurer an express statutory right to a complete copy of the crash report, on top of the state's general public records framework. Everything else, from incident reports to body camera footage, runs through Idaho's Public Records Act. Idaho has no statute governing who may request bodycam footage, and the one recording-retention statute on the books reaches county agencies rather than city police departments or the state police.

This guide covers the Idaho Transportation Department's crash report portal, the local incident report process, the statutory response deadlines every Idaho agency owes a requester, and the limits of Idaho's bodycam retention rule.

Information last verified on 2026-08-11. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

How to Get a Copy of an Idaho Crash Report

The Idaho Transportation Department's Crash Reports portal, at apps.itd.idaho.gov/apps/HWY_CrashReports, lets a requester search by name, city, county, driver's license last four digits, or case ID, then purchase and download a report. ITD's own portal states that "collision records are considered public information," citing Idaho Code section 49-202 for the general public-access framework. A PDF of one report costs $7.00 plus transaction fees charged through Idaho.gov. New reports typically take a few weeks to appear online, longer depending on the investigating agency, and a purchased report remains downloadable for up to 7 days. Idaho State Police also offers its own district-based request path as an alternative; secondary sources describe that channel as free of charge, which conflicts with the ITD portal's $7 figure. This guide could not independently confirm the ISP fee, so confirm directly with whichever channel is used.

Idaho's Statutory Right to a Crash Report Copy

Beyond the general public-access framework, Idaho Code section 74-124(2) gives a specific group an express right to their crash report: "any person involved in a motor vehicle collision which is investigated by a law enforcement agency, that person's authorized legal representative and the insurer shall have a right to a complete, unaltered copy" of the impact report and the final report prepared by the agency. That is a stronger, statute-level guarantee than the ITD portal page alone conveys, and it applies regardless of which channel the requester ultimately uses to obtain the copy.

How to Get an Idaho Police Incident Report

General incident reports are requested from the responding agency under the Idaho Public Records Act, Title 74, Chapter 1. Boise Police Department's process is a useful example: requesters submit a written request online or in person at City Hall West. Boise Police Department states that "any open, ongoing investigation must be completed and adjudicated in the court system before any records about the incident can be released," and a denial can be appealed by petition within 180 days of the denial letter under Idaho Code section 74-115.

The Response Deadline Is Statewide Law, Not Agency Policy

The residency-tiered timeline a requester runs into in Boise is not a Boise policy. Idaho Code section 74-103(2) sets it for every public agency in the state, which means a requester dealing with any Idaho city, county, or state agency can cite it. The agency must grant or deny an Idaho resident's request within 3 working days of receiving it. If the agency determines it needs longer to locate or retrieve the records, it must say so in writing and produce them no later than 10 working days after the request. For a person who is not an Idaho resident and is not employed by a resident, the deadline is 21 days, extendable on the same written-notice basis to 35 days.

Watch the units, because the statute does not use the same ones for both tiers. The resident deadlines are counted in working days; the nonresident deadlines are written as plain days, which run on the calendar and therefore include weekends. If the agency misses the applicable deadline, section 74-103(3) treats the request as denied, which is what starts the clock on an appeal.

Idaho's law enforcement investigatory exemption, Idaho Code section 74-105(1), withholds investigatory records of a law enforcement agency under the conditions in section 74-124. That companion section, 74-124(3), still requires disclosure of certain baseline facts even from an otherwise exempt inactive investigatory record: the time, date, location, and nature and description of a reported crime, accident, or incident, and the name, sex, age, and address of a person arrested, among other categories. A separate provision, Idaho Code section 74-120, is worth knowing if a request touches bulk records: it bars an agency from distributing or selling any list of persons for use as a mailing list or telephone number list without first securing the permission of the people on it. That restriction is a general public-records rule with its own set of exceptions, not a limit specific to investigatory records.

Body Camera Footage in Idaho

Idaho has no statute that sets a request process, fee, or response window for body camera footage. Disclosure is governed by the same general balancing test under sections 74-105 and 74-124 used for other law enforcement records.

Idaho does have a recording-retention statute, but it reaches a narrower set of agencies than it first appears. Idaho Code section 31-871 sits in Title 31, which governs county government. It defines a law enforcement media recording and sets minimum retention periods: 200 days for a recording with evidentiary value, 60 days for a non-evidentiary recording made by equipment not affixed to a building, which is the category a body or dash camera falls into, and 14 days for a non-evidentiary recording made by equipment affixed to a building.

The scope limit is in the statute's own definitions. Section 31-871(3)(b) defines "law enforcement agency," for purposes of that section, as "a county agency given law enforcement powers or that has authority to investigate, enforce, prosecute or punish violators of state or federal criminal statutes, ordinances or regulations including a county sheriff's office, a county prosecuting attorney's office, and misdemeanor and juvenile probation offices," and extends it to a private entity contracting with a county to provide those services. A municipal police department such as Boise's, and the Idaho State Police, are not within that definition.

The municipal counterpart, Idaho Code section 50-907, classifies city records as permanent, semipermanent, temporary, or historical and contains no law enforcement media recording category at all; it instead requires each city council to adopt a records retention schedule by resolution. The practical result is that footage held by an Idaho city police department or by the state police has no retention floor set by these statutes, so how long it survives depends on that agency's own policy or schedule. Anyone who may want city or state police footage should ask the agency to preserve it in writing rather than assume a statutory minimum applies. Where 31-871 does apply, it controls how long footage exists to be requested; it does not itself create a right to request or view it. For the state's fuller legal picture, see Idaho's body camera laws.

Corrections and Practical Notes

No dedicated correction process or driver exchange of information form specific to Idaho was located for this guide. If an Idaho crash or incident report needs a correction, contact the investigating agency directly.

Related Resources

Police Reports by State covers the full 50-state picture. See also how to file a police report, how to read a police report, are police reports public, how to request body camera footage, Idaho bodycam laws, Idaho car accident laws, Idaho public records laws, and Idaho court records.

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about Idaho's police report and public records process. It is not legal advice. Fees, portals, and eligibility rules change; verify current details with the agencies named above or a licensed Idaho attorney before relying on anything here for a specific situation.

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Last updated: 2026-08-11. Fees and portals reflect their published status as of August 2026.