Bellingham City Council voted to rejoin the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office Gang and Drug Task Force on Monday, July 1, committing to share police personnel with the group in order to combat drug trafficking in the region.
The Bellingham Police Department withdrew from the task force in 2020 because of critical understaffing. Since then the department has assisted as a supporting agency without providing personnel.
But the Bellingham Police Department is now ready for a more active role with the task force, having hired 25 new officers since 2022, according to a report from Chief of Police Rebecca Mertzig. The department intends to provide one officer and one supervisor to the task force, based on an interlocal agreement between the city and county.
“We’re excited and happy to be joining again,” Mertzig told the Bellingham City Council committee of the whole on July 1.
The agreement came on the heels of the city’s declaration of an opioid and synthetic drug crisis on June 3 and Mayor Kim Lund’s executive order in February to bolster patrols downtown. The June resolution identifies combatting opioid addiction as one of the city’s highest priorities and codifies the city’s intention to partner with other agencies to intervene in addiction cycles and help community members with recovery.
Council member Michael Lilliquist voiced his support of increased involvement from the city police force, and pointed out that the task force’s role is not always to “bust someone” who appears to be dealing drugs, but rather to build a case against higher-level drug traffickers that the prosecutor can take to court.
During a panel at a two-day summit in 2023, community members who have been affected by the opioid crisis shared their frustrations about what they see as a fractured drug response in Whatcom County. Last year, 137 people in Whatcom County died of a confirmed or probable drug overdose, a substantial increase from 91 in 2022. So far this year, 46 people have died of an overdose, according to the Whatcom Overdose Prevention website. Last year the drug task force seized seven pounds of heroin, 62 pounds of cocaine, 125 pounds of meth and 154 pounds of fentanyl-laced pills, as well as 31 firearms.
“We have been doing a lot of work inside the city limits of Bellingham and we’ve been feeling like we’re pulling a lot of weight there,” said county prosecutor Eric Richey, who serves on the executive board of the task force.
Richey added that the task force “is really good at investigating crime,” and is willing to put resources toward other crimes that the city sees as priority issues, such as human trafficking and retail theft.
The council voted unanimously to approve the interlocal agreement.
Julia Tellman writes about civic issues and anything else that happens to cross her desk; contact her at juliatellman@cascadiadaily.com.
