Staffing shortages affect Bellingham Police as special units are mothballed
Bellingham Police — facing a shortage of officers for several reasons — are staffing only their patrol and investigations divisions, the two units that are key to answering 911 calls and solving serious crime.
Recent terminations, resignations and retirements have hit the department hard, Deputy Chief Don Almer told The Bellingham Herald.
Hiring new officers has been difficult, forcing command staff to make tough choices, he said.
“If people think it’s just the vaccine (requirement), they’re just wrong,” Almer said. “It’s a convergence of events.”
Bellingham lost eight officers in December when Mayor Seth Fleetwood’s order required all city employees to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, according to information supplied to The Herald in December.
But other officers have retired, are injured, are serving in the military, or are attending the law-enforcement academy, leaving a total of 34 employees off the available patrol roster, Almer said.
Of the department’s 122 budgeted positions in operations, there are 13 vacancies, he said.
In addition, the city just resumed searching for a new police chief, six months after rejecting all four finalists during a previous search to replace Chief David Doll, who retired in January 2021.
Chief Flo Simon has been serving as interim chief, and intends to retire once a new chief is chosen.
Staffing concerns might worsen before they improve, because the department is facing a possible silver tsunami of retirements.
More than 30 officers will be eligible to retire in the next four years, Almer said.
Special units cut
Both the Patrol and Investigations divisions are required to fulfill the Police Department’s primary mission of responding to 911 calls and investigating crime, and those units are staffed, Almer said in a telephone interview.
Special programs that have been eliminated include the bicycle patrols, drug/gang task force, outreach, behavioral health, school resource officers and motorcycle traffic patrols, Almer said.
“Basically, anything not associated with Patrol or Investigations is pretty much gone,” he said.
“I’m sure it will be a long haul, but we have a plan in place,” Almer said.
Slower response
Bellingham Police fielded 74,647 calls to 911 in 2021, and officers responded to 60,842 of those, meaning they were a valid call that required a police officer.
That’s an average of 204 calls a day that required a police response, the Police Department said on its Facebook page.
Patrol staffing averaged eight to 10 officers at the peak times of the day and four to five officers at the off-peak times for Bellingham, a city of 90,620 people.
“We’re still staffed with qualified professionals, (but) it’s taking us longer to get to calls,” Almer told The Herald. “In nearly 30 years of police work, I’ve never seen this before.”
As a result, some lower-priority calls — such as a bike theft report — might take an officer several hours to respond to, or the victim might be asked to file an online report.
Almer asked for the public’s “patience and understanding” for now.
In an email, he said some crime statistics could be skewed if victims grow frustrated waiting for an officer to respond and cancel their 911 call, or if victims stop reporting criminal activity.
Hard to hire
Hiring and training officers is a lengthy process, starting with an entrance exam and interviews, continuing with a 720-hour recruit academy for new hires, and finishing a probationary period with on-the-job training under direct supervision.
“It’s really hard to get people into this position,” Almer said.
When Almer tested to be a police officer in 1995, some 400 people sent their exam results to Bellingham. Last year’s testing pool produced five applicants, he said.
Other departments are offering seasoned officers more money.
“It’s already difficult that we’re fishing for the same candidates,” he said.
Nationwide, police officers and sheriff’s deputies earned an average annual wage $70,000 in 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
A starting police officer in Bellingham draws base pay of $73,176 a year, not counting educational incentives or other premiums, Almer said.
“I still see people who want to make a positive difference in their communities. It’s a calling for them,” he said.
Four recruit officers recently graduated from the Basic Law Enforcement Academy and will now begin their 14-week field training, the department said on Facebook.
Four more recruits just started the five-month academy.
“We look forward to these officers joining our team on patrol in the second and fourth quarters of 2022,” the Facebook post said.
Future of policing
There’s currently some uncertainty for the future of policing in Bellingham and Whatcom County as elected officials develop programs like GRACE, which provides special services to people with behavioral-health problems, and Bellingham’s still-undefined proposal for a program would divert non-emergency calls to responders who aren’t armed police.
“It’s just been a habit for people over the years just to call the police. We’ve been tasked with (responding to) an issue that no one else can handle,” from drug addiction to homelessness, Almer said.
“Now folks are seeing that’s not the best solution, so they have to build those (new) programs. In the interim, we have to continue to serve our community,“ he said.
