How safe are Whatcom County’s largest cities? Here’s what a new crime study says
Bellingham’s crime rate per 1,000 residents in 2018 was nearly twice that of Ferndale and close to three times as high as Lynden, according to a recent study by the National Council for Home Safety and Security ranking the safest cities in Washington state.
No Whatcom County cities appeared among the state’s top 10 safest from 2018, according to the study, but Bellingham, Ferndale and Lynden all made the top 50.
Lynden, which had 15.26 violent and property crimes per 1,000 people, led the way in Whatcom County by being ranked the 12th-safest city in the Evergreen State. Ferndale, which had a crime rate of 22.44 per 1,000 residents was 23rd safest, while Bellingham and its 39.35 violent and property crimes per 1,000 residents stood 49th in the council’s study released Wednesday, Feb. 19.
The study used statistics from the 2018 FBI Uniform Crime Report from cities that submitted statistics and had populations of at least 10,000 people — a total of 73 cities in Washington state. The report used the number of violent and property crimes per 1,000 people and the number of law enforcement employees per 1,000 people to develop each city’s score and then ranked them.
Topping the list for Washington state was Oak Harbor, a city of 23,330 people with 7.97 crimes and 1.59 law enforcement employees per 1,000 people. Rounding out the top five were West Richland, Camas, Snoqualimie and Bainbridge Island. Snoqualmie had only three violent crimes in 2018 in a city of 13,947 people.
Tukwila (population 20,288) was the state’s least safe of the 73 cities ranked with 174.93 crimes and 4.19 law enforcement employees per 1,000 people. Spokane was 72nd, Tacoma 70th, Seattle 61st, Everett 55th, Mount Vernon 54th, and Olympia 51st.
Bellevue, with a population of 146,913, ranked 40th and was the only city larger than Bellingham that ranked safer than the City of Subdued Excitement.
The state averages for the 73 ranked cities were a crime rate of 34.39 per 1,000 people and 1.76 law enforcement employees per 1,000, the study reported.
Here is what the study found for the three Whatcom County cities it ranked:
▪ With a population of 90,208, Bellingham had 204 violent crimes in 2018 (2.26 per 1,000) and 3,346 property crimes (37.09 per 1,000). The city had 1.93 law enforcement employees per 1,000 residents with a police force of 174.
▪ Lynden, with a population of 14,612, had 18 violent crimes in 2018 (1.23 per 1,000) and 205 property crimes (14.03 per 1,000). The city also had 1.23 officers per 1,000 residents with 18 law enforcement employees.
▪ Ferndale, with a population of 14,439, had 16 violent crimes in 2018 (1.11 per 1,000) and 308 property crimes (21.33 per 1,000). The city had 23 law enforcement employees (1.59 per 1,000).
