Bellingham’s bike patrol hit the streets Tuesday for the first time in years, as the city updates its approach to security downtown.
With Bellingham Police Department officers now patrolling the streets by foot and by bike regularly, the city changed its contract with private security company Risk Solutions Unlimited to focus on parking garages on Railroad Avenue and Commercial Street, city Communications Director Melissa Morin said in an email Wednesday, Jan. 8.
Bellingham’s bike unit includes a sergeant and four officers, who will ride in teams of two during patrol shifts. They’ll be present downtown from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days a week, Lt. Claudia Murphy said, including Waypoint Park, Maritime Heritage Park and the new Lighthouse Mission building at 1312 F St. in Old Town.
The bike unit didn’t operate for several years due to police department officer shortages.
“All five are dedicated and motivated to improving the health and safety of downtown by handling quality of life calls, providing information on services available, getting to know the business owners and merchants downtown, and working to reduce drug related crimes,” the police department said in a Facebook post.
“… Officers riding bikes allows them to be so much more accessible to members of the community and to develop long-lasting relationships with those who work, live, and frequent downtown,” the post continued.
RSU security guards, who previously patrolled downtown right of ways 24 hours a day, will now only patrol city-owned parking facilities on Railroad and Commercial, Morin said. The patrols will take place every day from 4 p.m. to midnight, with 30-minute patrols conducted every two hours from 2 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Downtown Bellingham Partnership Communications Director Jenny Hagemann characterized the shift as the police department returning to its previous mandate.
“It feels like a change, because it is, but also because for the past three years, there’s been the stopgap of RSU,” Hagemann said.
DBP Executive Director Lindsey Payne Johnstone said not everyone wants to see an increased police presence downtown, which is one benefit of the unarmed RSU security guards. But Hagemann said that in conversations with downtown business owners in the last three years, one of their “number one asks” has been the return of “the community policing aspect of the bike unit.”
Hagemann and Johnstone said they’re looking forward to the simplification of downtown security.
“Having a single resource to facilitate community trust and expectation setting is what we’re getting back to,” Hagemann said.
Charlotte Alden is CDN’s general assignment/enterprise reporter; reach her at charlottealden@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 123.
