Bellingham Police Department

Last updated
City of Bellingham Police Department
Flag of Bellingham, Washington.svg
Municipal Flag
Common nameBellingham Police · Bellingham PD
AbbreviationBPD
MottoCommitted to Community [1]
Agency overview
Formed1904;120 years ago (1904) [2]
Annual budget$34.7 million (2021) [3]
Jurisdictional structure
Operations jurisdiction Washington, U.S.
Whatcom County Washington Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Bellingham Highlighted.svg
Bellingham Police jurisdiction
Size30.511 square miles (79.02 km2)
Population91,482 [4]
Legal jurisdictionCity of Bellingham
General nature
Operational structure
Headquarters505 Grand Ave, Bellingham, WA 98225
Agency executive
  • Rebecca Mertzig [5] , Chief of Police
Precincts2
Facilities
StationsBellingham Police Headquarters, and Downtown WTA Precinct
Website
Official website

The City of Bellingham Police Department, [6] more commonly known as the Bellingham Police Department and its initials BPD, is the primary law enforcement and investigation agency within the Bellingham, Washington city limits. Bellingham Police Department is the largest Police Department within Whatcom County, Washington and any other municipal agency north of the Seattle Metropolitan area. Bellingham Police Department is nationally accredited by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. [7]

Contents

History

On January 12, 1979, Bellingham Police arrested the prolific Hillside Strangler in Bellingham. [8] [9] Chief Terry Mangan was among the officers on the case: he would later serve as chief of the Spokane Police Department and work for the FBI. [10]

In 2002, a Jamaican woman named Una James came to Bellingham to search for her son, Lee Boyd Malvo, who had fallen under the influence of John Allen Muhammad. Bellingham Police alerted immigration authorities to James's presence; she and Malvo were arrested. Malvo and Muhammad would commit the Beltway sniper attacks later that year. An area immigration attorney commented that an immigrant going to the police for help and being arrested instead was common; the Seattle Post-Intelligencer noted that the arrest may have served to separate James and Malvo and draw Malvo closer to Muhammad. [11]

In 2008, a Bellingham Police car was stolen when an officer left it running in a parking lot while responding to a call. The car was found a half hour later with two flat tires and missing its radio microphones. [12]

In 2013, Bellingham Police attempted to break up a 500-person riot near Western Washington University after students began throwing beer bottles and other objects at idling police cars. Police used riot gear, pepper balls, smoke and flash grenades. It remains unclear what started the riot. [13] [14]

In May 2016, Bellingham Police became an acknowledged National accredited law enforcement agency by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC) [7]

In May 2017, a Bellingham officer fatally shot a man after he charged the officer with a knife. The man was a suspect in a stabbing the previous year. [15]

In 2017, Officer Brooks Laughlin assaulted a man during a traffic stop. Laughlin was arrested twice in 2018 before he resigned from the force in April. In November 2018, he was convicted of three counts of second-degree assault, two counts of felony harassment, two counts of violating a no-contact order, one count of felony stalking and one count of fourth-degree assault. Court papers state that he was the third Bellingham police officer in three years to be arrested for assault. [16]

An initiative on the November 2021 ballot banned the Bellingham Police Depeartment, and the rest of the Bellingham city government, from the use of facial recognition and predictive policing technology. [17] [18]

In 2024, the Bellingham Police Department unveiled a new badge design for future use. The new badge features the Old City Hall, now the Whatcom Museum in Present day. The previous eagle-top design was considered "generic" and could be mistaken for a counterfeit badge. This marks the fourth design change to the badge since the department's establishment in 1904, when it was housed in the Old City Hall. [19]

Responsibilities

The Bellingham Police Departments main responsibility is to deter crime, assist the local community and Provide law enforcement services to all citizens of Bellingham, Washington. [20]

BPD also works alongside the local metropolitan police force Whatcom County Sheriff's Office, as they are located in the heart of downtown Bellingham just a few doors down from the BPD headquarters. BPD officers have direct contact with WCSO staff everyday as they assist each other on traffic stops and other incidents at times, and the Sheriff's Office is responsible for county-wide corrections. [21]

The Bellingham Police Department is the main law enforcement agency of the city of Bellingham, except for the campus of the Western Washington University, which is under the responsibility of WWU Police. [22]

BPD has a number of specialty units including SWAT, bike patrol, motorcycles, "Walking the Beat", and a variety of detective units.

Additional Services

The Bellingham Police Department began their Community service officer Program in 2022 after trialing the Downtown Safety Ambassador Program previously. [23] BPD employs Community Service Officers (CSOs) to provide assistance to both the department and the public. CSOs, who are not sworn Police officers, carry out a range of tasks to aid various departments, with a focus on public safety. [24]

BPD also runs a youth Cadet Program called the Bellingham Police Explorers. The academy typically occurs at Yakima Training Center. [25]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bellingham, Washington</span> City in Washington, United States

Bellingham is the county seat of Whatcom County in the U.S. state of Washington. It lies 21 miles (34 km) south of the U.S.–Canada border, between Vancouver, British Columbia, 52 miles (84 km) to the northwest and Seattle 90 miles (140 km) to the south.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">D.C. sniper attacks</span> 2002 series of coordinated shootings in the Washington, D.C. area

The D.C. sniper attacks were a series of coordinated shootings that occurred during three weeks in October 2002 throughout the Washington metropolitan area, consisting of the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia, and preliminary shootings, that consisted of murders and robberies in several states, and lasted for six months starting in February 2002. Seven people were killed, and seven others were injured in the preliminary shootings, and ten people were killed and three others were critically wounded in the October shootings. In total, the snipers killed 17 people and wounded 10 others in a 10-month span.

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References

  1. ↑ "Facebook". www.facebook.com.
  2. ↑ Stark, John (March 15, 2012). "Milestones: From clubs to laptops, police work has changed". bellinghamherald.com. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  3. ↑ https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article246296735.html
  4. ↑ "Explore Census Data". data.census.gov.
  5. ↑ "Command Staff". City of Bellingham.
  6. ↑ "Police". cob.org. Archived from the original on 2019-06-22. Retrieved 2019-08-22.
  7. 1 2 "Police Department achieves accreditation". cob.org. Archived from the original on 2019-08-27. Retrieved 2019-09-27.
  8. ↑ "Klipsun". klipsun.wwu.edu. Archived from the original on 2018-01-02. Retrieved 2019-08-22.
  9. ↑ Hutton, Caleb. "Bellingham police chief who helped crack Hillside Strangler case dies at 76". Bellingham Herald. Archived from the original on 2022-06-04. Retrieved 2019-08-22.
  10. ↑ MCGANN, CHRIS; OLSEN, LISE (2002-11-20). "A mother's odyssey ends in tragedy". seattlepi.com. Retrieved 2022-06-05.
  11. ↑ "Police car stolen when officer leaves it running". seattlepi.com. Associated Press. 2008-12-03. Retrieved 2022-06-05.
  12. ↑ STEAD, JORDAN (2013-10-14). "Hundreds riot in Bellingham". seattlepi.com. Retrieved 2022-06-05.
  13. ↑ "Hundreds of students riot near Bellingham, WA university". CBC News. 2013-10-13.
  14. ↑ "Bellingham Police release video of fatal shooting by officer". KHQ Right Now. Retrieved 2022-06-05.
  15. ↑ SeattlePI, Lynsi Burton (2019-01-09). "Lawsuit: Former Bellingham police officer assaulted man without provocation". seattlepi.com. Retrieved 2022-06-05.
  16. ↑ "Bellingham, WA Bans Government Use of Facial Recognition, Predictive Policing Tech". EPIC - Electronic Privacy Information Center. Retrieved 2022-06-04.
  17. ↑ Simonite, Tom. "Face Recognition Is Being Banned—but It's Still Everywhere". Wired. ISSN   1059-1028 . Retrieved 2022-06-04.
  18. ↑ https://mybellinghamnow.com/news/297792-bellingham-police-redesign-badges-for-fourth-time-in-120-years/
  19. ↑ https://cob.org/gov/dept/police/about-police/patrol#:~:text=Twenty%2Dfour%20hours%20a%20day,their%20service%20to%20our%20community.
  20. ↑ "The Office of Sheriff | Whatcom County, WA - Official Website". www.whatcomcounty.us.
  21. ↑ "Home | University Police | Western Washington University". police.wwu.edu.
  22. ↑ Keller, Janice (March 31, 2022). "Downtown investments continue with launch of safety ambassador program". City of Bellingham.
  23. ↑ Schwartz, Ralph (August 30, 2022). "Four new hires at Bellingham Police will ease workload | Cascadia Daily News". www.cascadiadaily.com.
  24. ↑ "Explorers Program". City of Bellingham.
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