Bellingham
City in Whatcom County, 93,438 people.
Police
Sheriff in its county: Whatcom County Sheriff's Office.
A department or FBI code is the place's own when its name is the place's and its FBI population fits the place's people (decisions city-or-town-is-its-police-department, left-out-code-is-its-place). Agencies: FBI NIBRS master file 2025 batch headers; names from the FBI agency list, pulled 2026-09-29.
Where it sits
- County
- Whatcom County
- People
- 93,438
- Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2020 to 2024
How a case moves here
Bellingham follows Washington law on arrests, release, and courts; the full set covers prosecutors, defense, and jails too.
- Who decides release first
A judge or court commissioner sets release at the preliminary appearance. Before that, a district or municipal court may adopt its own bail schedule that the jail applies; adopting one is optional and court by court.
CrRLJ 3.2CrR 3.2.1RCW 10.99.045RCW 3.42.010- Time to see a judge
A judge must decide probable cause within 48 hours of an arrest, counting weekends and holidays. The person must then appear before the court by the close of business on the next court day.
CrR 3.2.1(a), (c), (d)- Money bail
Court rules presume release on personal recognizance except in capital cases. A court may require a bond only after finding a likely failure to appear or a danger, must use the least restrictive conditions, and must consider the person's financial resources when setting a bond.
CrR 3.2
Read from the statutes and court rules cited, 2026-09-30. The pretrial section rests on a secondary summary. Which counties use commissioners for preliminary appearances was not checked.
Crime
Offenses reported by Bellingham Police Department, Bellingham's own department. The county sheriff and state police may answer calls here too; their offenses are on their own pages.
The crime index
| Offense | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Per 100k | Washington |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crime | 409 | 388 | 320 | 343 | 253 | 360 | 339 |
| Murder | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 4.2 | |
| Rape | 32 | 25 | 13 | 21 | 26 | 25 | 40 |
| Robbery | 132 | 135 | 96 | 78 | 54 | 104 | 73 |
| Aggravated assault | 243 | 225 | 210 | 241 | 173 | 229 | 222 |
| Property crime | 5,200 | 6,514 | 4,387 | 3,928 | 3,357 | 4,914 | 2,753 |
| Burglary | 623 | 805 | 662 | 483 | 396 | 624 | 459 |
| Larceny | 4,195 | 5,208 | 3,476 | 3,290 | 2,881 | 4,003 | 1,799 |
| Motor vehicle theft | 382 | 501 | 249 | 155 | 80 | 287 | 495 |
| Arson | 19 | 20 | 24 | 8 | 9 | 17 | 17 |
Outside the crime index
| Offense | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Per 100k | Washington |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All offenses outside the crime index | 3,441 | 5,758 | 4,370 | 3,638 | 3,378 | 4,326 | 2,513 |
| Simple assault and intimidation | 830 | 817 | 823 | 805 | 730 | 842 | 795 |
| Vandalism | 1,679 | 3,927 | 2,865 | 1,905 | 1,745 | 2,547 | 928 |
| Fraud | 479 | 304 | 181 | 242 | 156 | 286 | 305 |
| Drug abuse violations | 51 | 119 | 146 | 280 | 469 | 224 | 184 |
| Weapons: carrying, possessing, etc. | 106 | 194 | 88 | 81 | 74 | 114 | 84 |
| Stolen property: buying, receiving, possessing | 135 | 207 | 104 | 145 | 73 | 140 | 82 |
| Forgery and counterfeiting | 106 | 131 | 102 | 65 | 58 | 97 | 43 |
| Sex offenses (except rape and prostitution) | 12 | 11 | 5 | 10 | 5 | 9 | 36 |
| Prostitution and commercialized vice | 5 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 3.5 |
| Other Group A offenses | 38 | 47 | 52 | 103 | 66 | 64 | 49 |
| Manslaughter by negligence (not in the total) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 0.7 | |
| Human trafficking (not in the total) | 1 | Too few for a rate: the count is under 20. | 1 |
Offenses Bellingham Police Department reported to the FBI in incident detail (NIBRS), each year, the second table by the arrest class each offense falls in. Per 100k: offenses per 100,000 people the department polices, 2021 to 2025 added together, beside Washington's rate over the same years. – means too few for a rate: the count is under 20.
Source: FBI NIBRS national master files, each agency's offenses and the FBI's population for it. Washington: the crime index: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, CrimeDB's chosen value per year (the state page's figures); outside it: FBI NIBRS, agencies that sent incident detail.