Community Policing to Come to Bellingham?

                Bellingham could look forward to “community policing” according to the city’s new police chief, Clifford Cook, who described this method of patrolling as a partnership between the police and community members at this month’s Cordata Neighborhood Association meeting on February 12.

            The idea of community policing is to provide neighborhoods with extra eyes and ears by training residents to look for and report incidents in their area. “It demonstrates that we don’t just write tickets—we have hearts, too,” he said. After first being exposed to this approach in Fort Worth, Tex., Cook brought it with him to Vancouver, Wash. where citizens became a direct link between police and the city. Once lost due to budget cuts, Cook hopes to reintegrate a Citizen’s Patrol Program back into Bellingham to involve more people in their communities and empower them to take part in public safety. “Police come from the community; we are members of the community.”