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Annexation for Bellevue Means Significant Growth for Police Department

With the Bellevue city council’s approval, Nov 10th, to annex 12 SIDs to Bellevue, the Police Department will be required to add 12 police officers and six more patrol vehicles. The department bases its hiring practices on a national standard set for police agencies in the Midwest of 2 police officers for every 1,000 people in order to ensure that no area of the city receives any less service as a result of the annexation. The annexation will add just under 6,000 residents to the city.

Bellevue Police Chief John Stacey said the growth will add one SID to the PD’s north precinct, the other 11 SIDs will grow the south precinct, which will mean an additional patrol district for the department. He said the police department leadership has been analyzing various strategies for weeks but ultimately will make the decision based on input from the field. Stacey said "I’ve requested information from the district officers who are patrolling the area every day to tell us how they'd like to set the boundaries for the most efficient patrolling scheme. Their recommendations will be forwarded to the entire staff to review, but it’s clear that the whole south precinct is going to have a major overhaul." Additionally, changes within the organization will have to be made to allow the police department to accommodate professional services that the other citizens receive.

Recruiting will begin immediately but it could be over a year before the new officers will be ready for the street on their own. Until then, BPD will move people around, utilize overtime, and make other adjustments to accommodate the growth.