Remembering: BELLINGHAM POLICE CHIEF RETIRING

Wow! Sixteen years of memories came rushing into my mind when I opened this morning’s Herald. On November 10, 1971 I became a member of the Bellingham Police Department; I was hired to develop an administrative secretary’s position. There had never been such a position before, and I quickly became aware of that reality. The second week I was there I was asked to develop the presentation to the City Council for the 1972 budget. I asked for a copy of the previous year’s and there wasn’t one. The Chief and Assistant Chief just stood behind me and gave me the details. It only took a few hours to complete. In those days there was a real effort made to have money left at the end of the year to exhibit good management.

In November of 1975 Bellingham elected a new, young Mayor, Ken Hertz, who immediately announced that the Bellingham Police Department was going to be one of his top priorities. At that time they were just beginning to develop policies and procedures, just beginning to have any outside training, college training of any kind was not a necessity. I recall Sgt. Kveven telling me that when he came on the Department in 1965 that he had been handed a gun and put on the street. Training began later. When Mayor Hertz announced there would be a nationwide search, disbelief was the prevailing attitude. Whoever heard of such a thing. The final six were chosen and one Bellingham officer was on it, Harold Raymond. Everyone simply assumed he would get the nod, he was a very capable person.

I will never forget a gray, rainy May day when I was called to the front desk because there was a man by the name of Terry Mangan, one of the finalists, and he wanted to arrange riding with an officer. The front desk area was gray whether it was raining or not, with holes in the linoleum here and there. Why would anyone be interested in coming?

Terry Mangan was the choice, Harold Raymond came in second. July 1, 1976 Chief Terry Mangan arrived on the scene, a former priest turned Police Chief from southern California. The Bellingham Police Department made a 180 degree turn; Harold Raymond’s gifts of developing policies and procedures went into high gear, training was immediate, budgets took months to prepare and there was no effort to have some left over, and numbers of new young officers were hired. The position I had been hired to develop skyrocketed. Three cases: a drug bust, the apprehension of the Hillside Strangler, and a local kidnapping sent the Bellingham Police Department off the charts nationally. The policies and procedures, the training, and the new addition of young new officers paid off.

On August 22, 1977 one of the new officers to come on board was Randy Carroll. His presence was noticed immediately, he did have a presence. His tall good looks, his pleasant personality, his conscientious attack to his work was evident. In the administrative area it was often mentioned that Bellingham would not be his home forever, he had a future. In 1977 Bellingham had not yet arrived, it was just on its way. Isn’t it amazing how things can change. Chief Carroll has been here 30 years. The department has continued its reach for excellence. There is no longer a gray front desk area with holes in the linoleum.

I have been retired for 20 years, and I look back on those 16 years as an amazing and challenging part of my life. In 1971 it was the time of hippies and Viet Nam, police officers were frequently called pigs. When I first went to work my friends were concerned that it just didn’t fit me, I had been administrative secretary to the Superintendent of Bellingham Schools, the chairman of the Science Department at Western, and the Bellingham Education Association. As the department developed its new persona, they no longer felt concerned. Since I was 49 when I began, the new recruits were “my boys and gals.” I was old enough to be all of their mothers and some of their grandmothers. I must add that at times they referred to me as the General. It added a completely new dimension to my life.

Mayor Pike is wise to use the complete survey method, Bellingham has benefited from the broader look and done well also from within the Department. May it continue.

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