Statistics tell the story. During the first three months of patrolling North Bend streets, Snoqualmie Police officers were busy.
According to a recent presentation to the North Bend City Council by Snoqualmie Police Chief, Steve McCulley, his “professional and proactive” team of officers received an “overwhelming positive reaction and support from North Bend residents.” In fact, during a time of very high police call volume, McCulley’s officers received no complaints.
The seven new Snoqualmie Police Department officers working the city limits of North Bend make up two squads, with one squad providing single-officer coverage 18 hours a day and two-officer coverage 6 hours a day. The second squad has four officers that provide two-officer coverage 16 hours a day and a single-officer coverage 8 hours of the day.
Those officers responded to just over 2,000 calls during their first three months serving North Bend’s 6,500 residents – or about 675 monthly calls.
In contrast, in the first five months of 2014, officers serving Snoqualmie responded to about 575 monthly calls from Snoqualmie’s nearly doubled population of 12,500 residents.
In three months, officers serving North Bend made 528 traffic stops; 143 misdemeanor arrests; and 7 felony arrests. Officers had 17 misdemeanor drug responses; 7 felony drug responses and issued 15 DUI’s. They also responded to 34 vehicle collisions; 17 vehicle prowls thefts; 10 burglaries and 17 domestic violence calls.
Overtime hours were utilized, in part, to address the current transient issues facing North Bend, and also provided extra emphasis to support regular patrolling officers.
North Bend spent $6,650 on police overtime, which paid for 70.5 extra patrol hours and 24 transient patrol hours. Those overtime hours led to 12 additional arrests, 18 additional traffic safety infractions, 9 more warnings and produced nearly 50 foot patrols and business checks.
According to Chief McCulley’s presentation, his officers made big strides in combatting the city’s transient problem by cleaning up 40 transient camps, which has dramatically reduced the criminal transient population in North Bend, as well as general criminal activity.
The department’s physical arrest of 150 suspects was due to a “rapid, efficient and effective response to a very high volume of police and emergency calls for service” from Snoqualmie police officers serving North Bend.
Challenges were noted in McCulley’s presentation, though, like continuing to manage the high call volume, which includes a large number of physical arrests and criminal activity occurring in North Bend.
Other challenges noted were the March 9th rape at Jay Berry’s restaurant; the massive April 25th explosion on North Bend Way and the continuing criminal transient activity and related camps.
If North Bend voters approve a sales tax increase (0.1 percent) in the upcoming November election, the additional taxes would fund a dedicated 8th police officer and would give the City of North Bend two-officer coverage each day.
SNOQUALMIE POLICE DEPARTMENT NORTH BEND SQUAD:
Comments
Good Job Guys!
While I appreciated many of the fine King County officers who previously served North Bend, I was a huge supporter of the move to Snoqualmie while I was employed there. Congratulations to the North Bend council, Mayor Ken Hearing and Administrator Lindell for their bold, and ultimately wise decision to add this community based, proactive police force.
My husband and I took our 3 young kids fishing this past weekend along the river near the sewer plant, to the Pour House. It was so nice and cleaned up!!! 2 years ago, we swore to never bring our kids back to that area, because of all the trash, human waste, and people living on the river. This winter our car was broken into while parked in our front yard, and our car was stolen from the EZ Mart. We are noticing less crime, feeling safer, and our family is thankful to have the 7 new officers in town!
Meanwhile, I’ve been told that Snoqualmie police will not be supporting North Bend residents who live in unincorporated King County (exit 34), meaning the change has screwed us all over. Now our police force is coming from Sammamish.
The police contract with Snoqualmie Police covers the city limits of North Bend. According to a previous Valley Record article, KCSO is still supposed to have vehicle in North Bend area all the time for the unincorporated areas it still covers.
That’s not what King County Sheriff’s office has been telling local residents.
I understand cleaning up homeless camps, but the bigger question is where are those folks going to go? Why doesn’t the valley have shelter space for the homeless, and a day facility where they can shower, meet with someone for resources, and perhaps even get mental health counseling. Overall, I wish Snoqualmie could service Fall City. They would make a fortune catching speeders on my block, and King County just doesn’t come out here very often, and it took them years to deal with a house where they were selling and probably making drugs.
North Bend/Snoqualmie do not have dedicated transient resources leading to real solutions bc they dont care about nor want them here let alone anyone who is’nt WHITE skinned (regardless of origin) nor anyone who suffers medically and is anything but perfect nor lacking plenty of retirement/401K money to contribute to the racist, fascist, corrupt,harrassing, malicious, dishonorable “ARREST/DESTROY ANY LEFT BREATHING” Themed fundraising meetings allocating more DISGRACEFULLY WASTED tax money to the NBEND SNOQUALMIE POLICE to buy themselves even more fictional based self-righteousness and bigger vehicles to stalk people with whom they have deemed not worthy of life itself via their own discriminatory profiling concepts. They deserve to be SHUT-DOWN AND SUED. I HAVE KNOWN TRULY HONORABLE POLICE OFFICERS I am however absolutely disgusted with this Department, care to see what they really do on the clock and out in the community from the other side?? Watch the net for it soon.