Here’s how Bellingham might address ‘defund the police’
Bellingham is committed to many of the criminal-justice reforms being demanded locally and nationwide in the wake of police killings of unarmed people, City Council members said during an online committee meeting.
And its police department already addresses issues raised by proponents of “8 Can’t Wait,” a national effort to reduce harm caused by police use of force, members of the department’s command staff said in a presentation Monday, June 22.
Lt. Don Almer, who heads the city’s special operations unit or SWAT, gave a presentation addressing the police department’s use of force policy, the training its officers receive and compared Bellingham police training and policies with the tenets of “8 Can’t Wait” use-of-force policies.
Almer, who has been a police officer for 25 years, said Bellingham officers receive far more training on a variety of topics than do officers in many other departments statewide.
He said Bellingham officers get 10 hours of training in every one-month shift rotation, and de-escalation skills are built into many of the training scenarios, including defensive tactics, use of force, range and crisis intervention.
“Think about how many marches we’ve had, how many protests we’ve had, all that kind of stuff — all without incident. And that’s because we’re doing the right thing for the right reasons and we try and communicate that,” he said.
He said the department already has policies that require fellow officers to intercede if another officer is violating procedures, address de-escalation for people in crisis; discuss verbal warnings; giving first aid; is transparent with its statistics; publishes its policies for public review; and reporting use of force and review of those incidents.
“For us, use of force is anything other than non-compliance,” including placing a suspect in handcuffs who offers what could be described as a mild resistance, Almer said.
He said that of all Bellingham police contacts over the past four years, 0.4% involved the use of force. Officers fired their weapons 10 times since 1990.
Almer detailed police department policy in the context of “8 Can’t Wait” policies:
▪ Ban chokeholds and strangleholds. Bellingham officers can use what’s called a “vascular neck restraint” to gain compliance, but officers are trained to do it properly and must certify once a year that they can do it safely. It’s been used 26 times in four years, and verbal de-escalation is used when possible.
▪ Require de-escalation. Washington state requires only 40 total hours of de-escalation training every three years, including only four hours annually in use of force, Almer said. “De-escalation is more than talk. De-escalation can be ‘Hey, we’re going to overtly show you a spark-test with a Taser.’ ” Bellingham patrol officers each got 42 hours of de-escalation training in 2019, he said.
▪ Require warning before shooting. Federal and state laws already require this when feasible he said.
▪ Exhaust all alternatives before shooting. He said sometimes a violent or chaotic situation doesn’t allow this.
▪ Duty to intervene. Bellingham police policy requires officers to intercede and report to a supervisor when an officer is violating policy.
▪ Ban shooting at moving vehicles. Federal and state laws ban this in most circumstances.
▪ Require use-of-force continuum. Bellingham doesn’t have a continuum, but its policies describe when and how each kind of force can be used.
▪ Require comprehensive reporting. Bellingham publishes its use of force statistics monthly.
Meanwhile, Assistant Chief Flo Simon, who became the department’s second Black officer in 1989, told the council that modern policing is complex, but it’s not always about making arrests.
“Prior to my being hired, I was a Western college student, and every interaction I had with the police was negative,” she said, adding that her goal in law enforcement was to make change.
“The most important tool that we teach our officers, that they have, is the ability to speak to people, the ability to de-escalate and to connect,” Simon said.
Councilman Dan Hammill, who heads the council’s Public Health, Safety and Justice Committee, said it will work with Mayor Seth Fleetwood to plan a “listening session” that likely would be online because of the new coronavirus pandemic.
Fleetwood said he would like to see the spirit of recent local marches and rallies translated into action, but that he doesn’t see the slogan of “defund the police” as a call to “abolish” police, but rather to let officers focus on law enforcement and not incidents that arise from homelessness, mental health issues or addiction.
Hammill mentioned CAHOOTS, a program in Eugene, Ore., that triages about 20% of police 911 calls to a team that includes a medic and a crisis worker, according to National Public Radio.
“Since COVID and since the murder of George Floyd, things have really changed quite a bit,” Hammill said.
“There’s a lot of work to be done and the community is looking to us for action,” Hammill said. “We are going to be having some hard conversations.”
Councilwoman Hollie Huthman, another member of the committee, said it was important to quickly address community concerns.
“Clearly we’re contemplating a lot about solutions,” Huthman said. “Right now, people are motivated though, and we have to take advantage of that.”
Councilman Michael Lilliquist said city leaders have been discussing civilian oversight of police for several years.
“Sometimes a gun and a badge are the wrong tools to send into a situation and if we rely on our police officers to do it, we’re doing them a disservice in the community,” Lilliquist said.
This story was originally published June 23, 2020 at 12:36 PM.
