Bellingham Police budget changes don’t go far enough, residents tell City Council
Dozens of Bellingham residents criticized the city’s proposed 2021-2022 budget during the first of two scheduled online public hearings on the $664 million spending plan.
Many speakers expressed anger and disappointment at the two-year budget’s allocation for the Police Department, which freezes one vacant position and shifts three officers to behavioral-health response, for a total of four behavioral health officers.
Those speakers were among a coalition of several local organizations seeking a 50% cut to the police budget, with the savings directed toward a civilian crisis response team to address 911 calls concerning mental illness and other social services.
“The town we say that we want to be is not the town that we are,” said Kathryn Tschoepe, in a hearing that lasted more than three hours.
Additional funds were urged to ease poverty and social issues that speakers said create crime — education and job training for poor people, food access, housing assistance, substance-abuse programs and services for homeless people and those with mental illnesses.
“With this budget proposal City Council and the mayor have failed us,” said Tyler Occhiogrosso of the Columbia neighborhood.
Not everyone opposed the budget, including Jacquelyn Styrna of the Building Industry Association of Whatcom County and resident Bill Palmer.
“I think there are a lot of quiet citizens like me” who support the police, Palmer said.
“To cut spending on one area of an organization because of political pressure without clarity of what will be cut and the impact that will have and without clarity of how that money will be spent and how effectiveness will be measured makes no sense to me,” he said.
Total Police Department spending for 2020 was $36.6 million, and the 2021 proposed budget reduces that to $34.7 million and then rises to $35.8 million in 2022.
City Council members have been discussing an unarmed crisis response team since September and heard a presentation on how such a program could work earlier Monday from Police Chief David Doll and Anne Deacon, the Whatcom County health services manager.
Council members have indicated that funds will be available to create such a program.
Further, the city is doubling its financial commitment to $120,000 for the multiagency GRACE program for frequent users of the mental-health system and raising its funding to $65,000 for Whatcom County’s Crisis Stabilization Center.
Several speakers said it wasn’t enough.
“It seems like there’s a problem and the police aren’t the solution,” said a woman identified online only as Amanda S. “If you look at the details, it’s not really keeping people safe.”
Some speakers mentioned three Bellingham police officers who have resigned or been fired in recent years because of violent behavior.
Jacob Esparza was fired in December 2016 for violent off-duty conduct, Sukhdev Dhaliwal was fired in May 2018 after an internal investigation showed misconduct, and Brooks Laughlin resigned in May 2019 and was later convicted of five felonies related to a pattern of domestic violence.
Others pointed out that only last year, four police officers were disciplined for a prank they played at the expense of a mentally ill man.
Speakers used terms like “bloated “ and “obscene” to describe the police budget.
“I know it’s difficult to hear but it’s necessary to hear, said Josh Cerretti. “ If you want to say Black lives matter and then act in an anti-Black way, you will be held accountable.”
Black Lives Matter and other groups have participated in marches, rallies and other events where supporters sought change within the Police Department.
Mental health counselor Lisa Zawacki said police officers simply aren’t able to assist people experiencing a psychological crisis.
She cited the years of schooling and supervised experience that’s required for people in her field with the 60 hours of extra training that police officers receive in mental health issues.
“Our community would be better served by people who have the proper training to manage mental health crises,” she said.
She said a properly trained crisis response team could reduce police workload and allow officers to focus on criminal activity.
“Please consider the amount of funding the Bellingham Police Department is getting and provide funding to services that would actually decrease crime,” she said. “This is a way to show care for our community. This protects us all.”
Councilman Michael Lilliquist assured speakers that since September the council has been discussing an unarmed 911 program to send crisis responders, nurses and community health workers to behavioral health-related emergency calls.
He urged patience as the details were discussed.
“We’re already doing that work at the moment,” he said.
This story was originally published November 10, 2020 at 2:18 PM.
CORRECTION: Tyler Occhiogrosso’s name and the number of felonies Brooks Laughlin was convicted of were corrected on Nov. 11, 2020.
