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The record · Whatcom County Jail

The Jail, in aggregate

Who is booked into the Whatcom County Jail, by whom, how often, and how concentrated the repeat cycle is — from the county’s own roster and Bellingham’s published stats. Counts and trends only; we never publish individuals.

Record layer. Aggregate and de-identified. The names-level roster is public record at the county, but we do not republish individual defendant data — that stays in a gated internal tool.
Right now

Where the jail stands

Live population & booking-restriction level (updated daily).

307
● Yellow — booking restricted
of ~359 combined capacity · misdemeanor warrants & PC arrests not booked at this level.
Live tracker & the signed policy →
Who books people in

Booking agency — past 12 months

Bellingham Police account for roughly 44% of bookings; the Sheriff about 27%.

Bellingham Police2,058
Whatcom County Sheriff1,231
WA State Patrol430
Lummi Nation Police306
Ferndale Police163
Blaine Police150
Lynden Police114
Dept. of Corrections84
Other agencies105
Over time

Bookings per month

Aug 2025 – Jun 2026, full months. Steady at roughly 350–420 a month.

419Aug
378Sep
358Oct
378Nov
350Dec
413Jan
396Feb
401Mar
424Apr
408May
371Jun
What Bellingham police handle

COB incident categories — 2026

From the City of Bellingham’s own published incident statistics. Property and behavioral-health-adjacent categories dominate.

Theft1,017
Disorderly behavior939
Behavioral health755
Suspicious circ.511
Warrant arrest429
DV (no assault)400
Graffiti329
Drugs / narcotics286
Traffic collision242
Traffic stops226
DUI190
Assault (misd.)172
Court-order violation152
The repeat cycle

The same people, over and over

Across 25,062 people in the jail’s booking records (2000–2026), a small group drives most of the volume.

42%
of people are repeat bookers (2+) — but they account for 78% of all bookings
4.6%
have 10+ bookings, yet make up a quarter of all bookings
150
people have 20 or more bookings (the most: 35)
57.6%
are booked only once — the churn is not most people
Why the cycle persists (analysis) → What the alternatives evidence shows →

Sources & method

Whatcom County Jail roster and booking records (`jail.roster_daily`, `jail.bookings`; 156,000+ bookings back to 2000); City of Bellingham published incident statistics (2026); person-level de-duplication via the county name index. All figures are aggregate; no individual is named. Booking-agency and monthly-trend figures cover the trailing 12 months; population/level updates daily. Figures dated July 13, 2026 — refreshed periodically.