Data shows 23 possible hate crimes in Bellingham this year.
The latest statewide hate crime data found roughly 500 hate crime incidents reported each year between 2019 and 2024.
The state Attorney General’s Office highlighted bias and hate crimes often going unreported despite the often personal and long-lasting impacts these crimes can have on impacted community members. In 2026, the Bellingham Police Department reported roughly 23 suspected bias incidents between Jan. 1 and May 7, public records show.
In a January incident, Bellingham Police responded to an assault call at a Bellingham hotel. Officers spoke with hotel employees and learned that a 33-year-old man who worked at the hotel had assaulted his father, who also owns the hotel, and later threatened another hotel employee. The impacted employee stated that the man threatened to hurt him and his family, saying that if he didn’t show “documents,” the man would call Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ‘
Because the incident involved suspected bias, a hate crime worksheet was completed and submitted to the Major Crimes Unit sergeant for review. “The classification was made a hate crime,” according to the report. The man was arrested and booked in the Whatcom County Jail for Hate Crime Offense / Harassment, Assault in the fourth degree -Domestic Violence, and Malicious Mischief in the third degree, according to the incident report.
“We take hate crimes exceptionally seriously,” Bellingham police spokesperson and Patrol Lt. Claudia Murphy said. “It is an unacceptable thing to have happened to anyone, and we want people to report to us. We understand that it can be frightening, and we will take the reports at their own pace, at their own ability to make the report when they feel comfortable.”
A public records request to the Criminal Justice Training Commission, the agency responsible for certifying and training police officers statewide, found that police officers undergo only one hour of hate crime-specific training out of a 720-hour basic law enforcement academy. The course is currently taught by the Seattle Police bias crimes detective.
CJTC spokesperson David Quinlan said CJTC doesn’t require officers to undergo additional hate crime training outside of the basic law enforcement academy.
“Within (law enforcement academy), hate crimes have been included in the curriculum since 2022, with updates made in 2024. Outside of (law enforcement academy), hate crime-related content is incorporated into (the Law Enforcement Training and Community Safety Act) eLearning courses, where it is addressed in the context of specific communities, rather than as a dedicated, comprehensive course,” he said.
In November 2025, to bolster community hate crime reporting, BPD adopted an initiative called Safe Place, which aims to build working relationships between local police, community members and local businesses. Participating businesses place a Safe Place sticker visible to the public inside their business, train staff to call 911 and let the person reporting the incident stay inside the business before police arrive. Since its launch, BPD reports that over 40 businesses are participating.
The Mount Vernon Police Department is not currently participating in the Safe Place program. “With any new program related to policing, we would want to do thorough research on it and its levels of success before implementing it in our department and community,” said MVPD lieutenant and department spokesperson Dave Shackleton.
A separate public records request to BPD found that in 2021, an officer missed a possible hate crime incident. BPD officials recommended officers undergo additional training by completing a daily training bulletin. On Dec. 7, 2021, BPD issued a directive that required all commissioned staff to review the agency’s hate crime policy and acknowledge the directive. Murphy said that while the agency doesn’t have additional standalone hate crime training, the agency does undergo both a policy and law review, and officers complete approved Criminal Justice Training Commission training.
Anti-Defamation League Pacific Northwest Regional Director Ariel Novick provided the following statement regarding the importance of police receiving additional hate crime training: “Specialized law enforcement training, such as those ADL provides and the recently implemented statewide bias hotline are essential tools in protecting communities. When law enforcement treats hate crimes as a priority, public trust increases, which leads to increased reporting. We urge anyone who is on the receiving end of a hate incident to report it.”
The American Civil Liberties Union Washington state affiliate supports civil rights while also advocating for additional law enforcement-specific hate crime training. The group’s statement reads: “There continue to be incidents of violence directed at people based on their race, religion, gender, national origin, sexual orientation or other group characteristics. In response, jurisdictions have taken different legislative approaches to enhance existing criminal laws when a victim was targeted because of these characteristics. ACLU-WA historically has supported legislation intended to protect civil rights and liberties by providing remedies against discrimination. At the same time, ACLU-WA has consistently opposed legislative approaches that would punish the mere expression of thoughts, opinions or beliefs. Because of these complexities, ACLU-WA urges that special training is provided to police and prosecutors to help with the investigation and prosecution of these crimes. Discrimination is present throughout our criminal legal system, and in turn has contributed significantly to the need for hate crimes statutes.”
The state attorney general’s office launched a hate crime hotline last July in King, Clark and Snohomish counties before expanding statewide in 2027, according to a July 2024 AG press release. The hotline aims to provide victims with support, information and community resources when reporting both hate and bias incidents.
Quinlan said the training commission, in collaboration with the state attorney general’s office, developed a hate crime hotline training for law enforcement officers statewide to coincide with the hate crime hotline, which requires officers to refer people to the hotline for hate crime and bias incidents. The training is currently optional and not yet incorporated into the academy.
“One ongoing challenge is awareness and adoption of available training resources. For example, participation in the optional online Hate Crimes Hotline training has been limited relative to the total number of officers statewide. Increasing visibility and agency engagement is an area for improvement,” he said. “Additionally, while hate crimes are addressed within broader cultural competency training, (the training commission) recognizes that there is not yet a dedicated, standalone hate crime course outside of (law enforcement academy). Expanding and deepening that training is something that could be considered in the future.”
The Whatcom County Prosecutors’ office reported nine cases and 11 total charges in 2025, compared to five cases in 2024. “Three of those cases are juvenile cases, and in one of the adult cases, the defendant was declared incompetent to stand trial due to mental health issues,” Chief Criminal Deputy Attorney Erik Sigmar wrote via email.
San Juan County Prosecuting Attorney Amy Vira reported no hate crime charges in 2025 as of December and had one case for the preceding two years. “It is extremely important to report incidents of hate crime. Only by reporting them to law enforcement are such incidents able to be investigated and the perpetrators held accountable for their actions. Hopefully, through enforcement of our laws, further escalation of behavior is prevented,” she wrote in an email.
The Skagit County Prosecutors’ Office staff confirmed that as of Dec. 17, they charged no hate crimes in 2025. In 2024, officials charged five individuals involved in a single incident.
Some 911 centers train 911 call-takers to specifically screen calls for bias or hate crime elements as part of the call-taking process. Public records requests to What-Comm 911, Skagit 911 and the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office, which handle 911 calls in Whatcom County, Skagit County and San Juan County, determined that none of the three agencies have policies or training materials specifically for hate crimes.
“It is very important that if something like this occurs to somebody, that they report it right away,” Shackelton said, and we recognize that there can be some fear, especially in today’s world, in seeking out policing agencies. We want our community to know that we are here to support them, and it’s not OK if something like this happens to them, and we want to be able to do good quality investigations to hold people accountable when they do this.”
—By Joshua Kornfeld