COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — Coeur d'Alene City Council voted in favor of an updated county emergency operations plan, but one sentence is concerning some people.
The plan says anyone who refuses to comply with a governor-ordered evacuation may be arrested.
In the more than 200-page document, county emergency management officials mapped out different emergency situations and agencies who responds to them.
During a governor-ordered evacuation, local law enforcement can arrest someone who doesn't comply.
That didn't sit well with Paul Van Noy, the senior pastor of Candlelight Christian Fellowship in Coeur d'Alene.
"Always have things in order, a plan to keep people safe," Van Noy said. "The problem with what we've just heard is that there's too much vague language."
Van Noy argues the ability to arrest someone who refuses to leave their home in an evacuation is not something officials should have authority over.
Councilmember Kenny Gabriel with District 4 said that statement is an insignificant part of the entire plan as a whole.
"I think that's such a very small part of the plan," Gabriel said. "It's one sentence that says "may be arrested."
Chief of Police Lee White said the ability to arrest someone refusing a governor-ordered evacuation is still up to the law enforcement's jurisdiction.
"There are laws on the books that officers have the discretion whether or not to make an arrest or write a report or take any action that we exercise daily," White said.
White emphasized that the police department is not intending on arresting someone who would refuse to leave their property.
Van Noy believes that is not enough.
"Even when we have [the] commitment from, say, present-day officials that say we're not going to arrest anybody, we don't know what the future holds," Van Noy said. "We don't know who those officials will be."
It's authority county emergency management said has and is still active.
Van Noy said he's going to try and change it.
"I'll be talking to the county commissioners," Van Noy said. "I'll be talking to our senators. I'm going to be doing some homework all this all the way to Boise. We're going to have to change this from the state level, and then going to change it to the county level."