All Law Enforcement Nationwide Has Access to Idaho Data at Center of Gun Dispute in Twin Falls? By Greg Pruett (09/13/24)

idahodispatch.com/all-law-enforcement-n…

Idaho Dispatch (ID) continues to delve into whether the LeadsOnline third-party gun tracking program violates Idaho’s “no gun registration” laws. ID learned that LeadsOnline allows law enforcement in all 50 states to access its database if a user’s agency has paid for that specific level of access.

Key points:

• A Twin Falls Police Department (TFPD) officer stated the information they are collecting is “shared with everywhere else.” (Source: meeting transcript)

• LeadsOnline website states that law enforcement agencies can search transactions from all 50 states.

• TFPD said they are not using the program as a gun registry and that they support the 2nd Amendment.

• Attorney General Raul Labrador’s office said that the local governments’ collection of firearm data violates Idaho Code 18-3326A(2).

“Except for those records kept during the regular course of a criminal investigation and prosecution or as otherwise required by law, a state government entity or local government, special district, or other political subdivision or official, agent, or employee of the state or other government entity or any other person, public or private, other than the owner or owner’s representative, may not knowingly and willfully keep or cause to be kept any list, record, or registry of privately owned firearms or any list, record, or registry of the owners of those firearms.”

LeadsOnline does appear to be a de facto gun registry controlled by a third-party company for the benefit of government law enforcement personnel. This public/private partnership likely infringes on Second Amendment rights “shall not be infringed…”.

Idaho Dispatch continues to investigate and awaits input from various agencies and LeadsOnline.