The downtown safety ambassadors were taken off the streets at the end of 2023, as Bellingham officials consolidate security services in the city’s troubled commercial core.
The ambassador program was launched in April 2022 to serve as a welcoming and supportive presence for downtown businesses, tourists and shoppers during the day, while Risk Solutions Unlimited (RSU), hired in January 2022, provided an overnight security presence.
Both patrols had approached homeless individuals with a dual purpose: to discourage loitering and other behavior that interfered with businesses, and to direct them to social services.
For now, with the ambassadors gone, RSU teams have been patrolling downtown streets 24 hours a day, with a focus on the city’s parking garages — widely reported as scenes of frequent drug use. The teams carry no weapons.
“It would be more efficient to combine daytime and nighttime safety patrols … with an emphasis on security over outreach,” city Communications Director Janice Keller said in a Tuesday, Jan. 23 statement.
The enhanced security and support downtown were then-Mayor Seth Fleetwood’s response to growing concerns among business owners over graffiti, open drug use and “more aggressive behavioral outbursts,” as a city official told city council in December 2021. RSU and the ambassadors were part of a two-year pilot program, through the end of 2023.
Fleetwood had billed them as a stopgap, until the Bellingham Police Department could fill vacancies and resume foot and bicycle patrols that were seen as effective at reducing crime and other unwanted behaviors.
In fall 2023, Fleetwood called increasing police presence downtown the “highest immediate need” at a city council meeting. Foot patrols, which previously operated as regular assignments, stopped prior to COVID-19 due to police department staffing issues. In July, the city resumed daily police foot patrols in downtown Bellingham, and in October 2023, published a formal safety plan to curb crime and address the behavioral health needs of homeless people. But city leaders say downtown concerns go back years.
In November, many downtown employees and business owners told Cascadia Daily News they wanted to feel safe in their workplaces and didn’t feel prepared to handle the issues of addiction and behavioral health problems on their doorsteps.
Last fall, with police patrols still not fully staffed, Fleetwood, in consultation with the Downtown Bellingham Partnership, decided to keep the security-focused RSU while eliminating the ambassadors.
A revamped RSU is part of new Mayor Kim Lund’s budding plan to make the downtown more attractive to visitors.
“My vision for downtown is a vibrant and prosperous one,” Lund said. “Security is an important part of how we realize that vision, but it’s just one part of how we get there.”
“I’m eager to expand the conversation in the months ahead,” the mayor added.
Other agencies already provide outreach to homeless people, including Lighthouse Mission Ministries and Opportunity Council’s Homeless Outreach Team.
Jenny Hagemann, the Downtown Bellingham Partnership’s development and communications manager, said the partnership supported the city’s decision to consolidate safety services. The nonprofit works to promote businesses and cultural events downtown.
“Having two service entities provided some confusion as well as some inefficiency,” Hagemann said.
The city spent $1.02 million over the past two years on RSU and the ambassadors, who were provided by Streetplus, a company that offers safety and hospitality services to downtown areas nationwide.
The city spent $460,000 on the ambassador program alone, using COVID-19 relief funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
Top city officials said they are still hammering out what RSU’s new role — and maybe even a new look — will be in 2024. A new contract for the security firm, expected to be finalized in the coming weeks, will be funded with a combination of ARPA dollars and the city’s general fund.
Hagemann hinted that RSU’s all-black uniforms may get a new look, approaching the style of the old ambassadors.
“I’m looking forward to that blending of [the two uniforms],” Hagemann said. “RSU uniforms are very ‘security guard.’”
Ralph Schwartz is CDN’s local government reporter; reach him at ralphschwartz@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 107.
