With a decision nearing, candidates for Bellingham police chief appeared online Thursday to talk about how they would solve some of the biggest problems faced by police in Bellingham and elsewhere, including systemic racism, high crime rates and recruitment struggles.
The Zoom meeting was a chance for the three longtime law enforcement officers to sell themselves to Bellingham citizens after a series of intensive meetings over two days with city officials and select community organizations.
Lt. Rebecca Mertzig of the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office emphasized increasing staff levels within the Bellingham Police Department to combat the city’s growing crime problem. Earlier this year, the department was 34 officers short due to vacancies, leaves and training.
“You can’t have a solution without the bodies to respond and react to the calls for service,” Mertzig said. “Having police officers on the street is going to prevent crime as well.”
Commander Dennis Flynn of Commerce City, Colorado talked about reducing crime by taking a community policing approach and “getting cops back into the neighborhoods.” Flynn was aware of Bellingham’s decision to eliminate motorcycle patrols and said he would like to put Bellingham officers back on motorcycles, or at least the specialized Enduro bikes used by Las Vegas police. Flynn had worked for that agency for 30 years. “They’re a good PR tool,” he said.
Deputy Chief John DeRousse of Everett said most of the people who are homeless aren’t causing behavioral and crime problems increasingly plaguing Bellingham’s downtown. He touted Bellingham and Whatcom County’s GRACE program, or Ground-level Response and Coordinated Engagement, which identifies people police and emergency responders contact frequently and gets them the services they need.
The other candidates appreciated GRACE, too. Flynn praised it as “revolutionary,” and Mertzig said she had successes in a homeless-outreach program in Snohomish County called the Office of Neighborhoods.
All three acknowledged that systemic racism has been and continues to be a problem in police departments, and they presented themselves as aligned with Bellingham’s progressive values.
“We definitely need to start by recognizing and understanding our history in policing and how that affects today the BIPOC community,” said Mertzig, using the common acronym for Black, Indigenous and people of color.
Mertzig added that she frequently experiences “microaggressions” as a woman in law enforcement. “I’m a female in a very male-dominated profession, and that’s why these issues are very important to me,” she said.
Mertzig also mentioned that she has lived in Whatcom County for 30 years and chose to raise her family here, adding that interim Bellingham Police Chief Flo Simon encouraged her as she was applying for the job. Mertzig said Simon told her she would be “a good fit for this agency and this community.”
DeRousse said addressing BPD’s “staffing crisis” would be his first priority. He and his colleagues in Everett have been successful at adding diversity to the force over the past few years, he said: 50% of new hires in 2021 and 35% in 2020 were people of color.
Bellingham is nearing the end of its second nationwide search for a new chief. Former Chief David Doll retired in January 2021, prompting the first search for a new chief that spring. Although the city named four finalists at the time, including Bellingham Deputy Chief Don Almer, Mayor Seth Fleetwood decided not to hire any of them. Simon has served as interim chief since Doll’s departure.
That initial search came during a tumultuous time for police, who were under heightened public scrutiny after several highly publicized deaths of Black people at the hands of police nationally.
“During this important time of transition in law enforcement, we need a leader that fits our vision for the future of the Bellingham Police Department,” Fleetwood said in a June 2021 press release announcing the city would launch a second police chief search.
Fleetwood had indicated what the city was looking for in a new police chief in a previous announcement, from May 2021:
“Our next police chief will be an experienced law enforcement professional who has demonstrated success building community relationships and is ready to lead changes our community desires in policing, such as further developing non-enforcement responses, expanding behavioral health programs, identifying and eliminating structural and institutional racism, and building on the department’s already strong culture of compassion, integrity and professionalism.”
Bellingham’s job posting lists a salary range of $162,720 to $196,884 for the position. The city, with the help of Issaquah recruitment firm Prothman, selected the three semifinalists from 15 applications. Fleetwood recently said he hoped to announce his new hire in the first week of April. At Thursday’s forum, he said only that his selection would be announced “soon.”
People who watched the forum can give feedback about candidates in a survey on the Engage Bellingham website until 5 p.m. Sunday. The survey includes a link to a recording of the forum for those who didn’t watch it live.
