Chuckanut Health Foundation
Whatcom County Justice Data
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Three things to know before exploring this data
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1
Bookings and reported crime can move in different directions.
Whatcom County jail bookings rose approximately 28% from 2023 to 2025. Over the same period, National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)-reported crime offenses in the major Whatcom County jurisdictions declined. Bookings and reported offenses measure different things, bookings reflect arrests that result in jail processing; NIBRS reflects incidents reported to law enforcement. Understanding what accounts for the gap is what this dashboard examines.
2
About three-quarters of the 2023–2025 booking increase comes from three specific categories.
Warrant bookings (largely Failure to Appear), Department of Corrections detainer bookings (following post-supervision policy changes), and drug possession charges under SB 5536 together account for roughly 76–83% of the year-over-year booking increase from 2023 to 2025. Violent felony bookings over this period remain below 2019 levels.
3
The raw data is a charges database, it needs deduplication.
The Whatcom County Sheriff's Office (WCSO) source data contains 47,573 rows for 2025, one per charge, not per booking. After deduplicating by Booking Number, there were 4,880 unique bookings (4,743 excluding Electronic Home Detention bookings) involving approximately 3,519 individuals. All percentages in this dashboard use deduplicated booking counts.
Whatcom County, Washington · 2019–2025
Whatcom County jail bookings: 2019–2025 data
Between 2019 and 2025, Whatcom County jail bookings dropped sharply during the pandemic
and then rose over 2023–2025 toward pre-pandemic levels. This dashboard presents the
underlying booking data, charge composition, arresting-agency breakdowns, and year-over-year
changes, alongside reported-crime data so readers can examine the relationship between
the two measures directly.
4,880
2025 unique bookings
+28%
vs. 2023
−26%
vs. 2019 baseline
76–83%
of 2023–25 change: three categories
Section 1 of 5
The Big Picture
Whatcom County jail booking totals from 2019 through 2025. This section presents annual
booking counts, the pandemic-era decline, and the year-over-year changes from 2023 through
2025 so readers can see the underlying trajectory.
2019 Bookings
6,561
Pre-pandemic baseline
2020 Bookings
3,211
Pandemic low · −51%
▼ 51% from 2019
2023 Bookings
3,814
Recovery begins
2024 Bookings
4,047
+6% from 2023
2025 Bookings
4,880
+21% from 2024
▲ 21% year-over-year
Context: Whatcom County's 2025 booking total of 4,880 remains about 26%
below the 2019 pre-pandemic baseline of 6,561. The 2024→2025 change of +21% marks a year
of notable acceleration after a slower 2023→2024 recovery.
Annual Jail Bookings, 2019–2025
Unique deduplicated bookings per year · excludes EHD
Source: WCSO Public Booking Data, 2019 & 2023–2025. Analysis by Chuckanut Health Foundation.
Monthly Booking Trend, 2023–2025
12-month rolling comparison by year
Source: WCSO Public Booking Data. Analysis by Chuckanut Health Foundation.
01
Bookings fell, then rose, but are still below 2019
The pandemic brought dramatic reductions in bookings beginning in 2020. By 2025, bookings have recovered to approximately 74% of 2019 levels, reflecting both policy rollbacks and a changing population in the jail.
02
The composition of bookings has shifted significantly
Per Washington State University (WSU)'s 2023 analysis, felony-level charges comprised approximately 36% of pretrial bookings in 2020–2023, compared with about 24% in 2015–2019. The composition of pretrial admissions shifted modestly toward more serious top charges over this period. Warrant bookings, Department of Corrections (DOC) detainers, and drug charges account for most of the 2023–2025 increase in bookings.
03
The behavioral health population drives length of stay
People experiencing mental health crises, substance use disorders, and homelessness have the highest average length of stay and highest per-day cost, making behavioral health investment the central design question for any jail facility.
Section 2 of 5
Booking Trends by Agency
Bookings are recorded by the arresting agency. Bellingham Police Department accounts for
the largest share, followed by the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office. Trends vary
significantly by jurisdiction and reflect differences in policing practice, population,
and enforcement priorities.
Bookings by Arresting Agency
Primary law enforcement agencies · 2023–2025
Year-over-Year Change by Agency
Percent change, 2023 to 2025
Agency Booking Table: 2023 · 2024 · 2025
Unique deduplicated bookings. Percent of annual total shown.
Agency
2023
2024
2025
Change '23→'25
% of 2025
Source: WCSO Public Booking Data. Analysis by Chuckanut Health Foundation. Totals may not sum due to rounding and minor agencies.
Note on methodology: The WCSO booking database is a charges-level file
(multiple rows per booking). All figures above reflect unique bookings after deduplication
on Booking Number. Electronic Home Detention (EHD) bookings are included in agency counts
as they are recorded by the booking agency; overall booking totals in Section 1 exclude EHD.
Section 3 of 5
What the Booking Composition Shows
A breakdown of what charge categories are represented in the 2023–2025 booking data.
This section identifies three categories, warrant bookings, DOC detainers, and drug
possession charges under SB 5536, that together account for about 76–83% of the
change in bookings from 2023 to 2025.
76–82.5% of the 2023–2025 booking increase is attributable to three categories:
Failure to Appear (FTA) warrant accumulation, DOC detainer bookings following post-supervision policy changes at
the state level, and drug-related bookings following Washington's SB 5536. Violent felony
bookings remain below 2019 levels.
Top Charge Categories, 2023–2025
Unique bookings by primary arrest type
Warrant vs. Non-Warrant Bookings
Warrant bookings as a share of total
▲
Warrant bookings surged in 2025
Warrant arrests increased from 814 (2023) to 751 (2024) and then to 1,241 in 2025, a 52% increase from 2023. This reflects accumulated Failure to Appear warrants from years of court backlogs and pandemic-era deferrals.
▲
DOC Detainers became a major category
Department of Corrections detainer bookings rose from 24 in 2023 to 237 in 2025, nearly a tenfold increase. DOC detainers reflect post-supervision status with the state corrections system rather than new criminal activity in the local jurisdiction.
→
DUI remains the largest single charge type
Traffic/DUI Alcohol bookings have been consistent across years: 713 (2023), 757 (2024), 814 (2025). Year-over-year change in this category has been modest, in contrast with categories showing larger shifts.
▲
Drug possession bookings rose after SB 5536
Controlled substance possession bookings increased sharply in 2025 (136 bookings), following Washington's SB 5536, which took effect in 2023 and re-established criminal penalties for simple drug possession after the Blake decision period.
Key Charge Categories Year-over-Year
Selected arrest types showing most significant change · unique bookings
Source: WCSO Public Booking Data 2023–2025. Analysis by Chuckanut Health Foundation. Charge classification based on ArrestType field.
Section 4 of 5
Bookings by Jurisdiction
Booking rates vary substantially across Whatcom County jurisdictions. Select a city or
agency below to view its booking trend and context. Note that booking counts reflect
arrests made by the named agency, which may include individuals from throughout the county.
Section 5 of 5
Policy Relevance & Findings Summary
Understanding booking trends informs a number of live policy discussions in Whatcom County,
including the Justice Project scope, the facility capacity planning process, and the
renegotiation of the Interlocal Agreement. This section summarizes findings from the
sections above and highlights cross-cutting observations that appear across the data.
The current planning question: Whatcom County is in an active planning cycle
for the Justice Facility and Behavioral Care Center. The Finance and Facility Advisory Board (FFAB) has recommended a $225 million
budget cap ($205M jail + $20M BCC). The data on this dashboard is among the inputs relevant
to that planning cycle; other key inputs include the Pasquo Planners forecast, the STV / EP&A
Behavioral Health Analysis, and the Prosecutorial Diversion Addendum.
01
Booking trends and crime trends diverged in 2023–2024
NIBRS crime data for Washington State shows that reported crime offenses in major Whatcom County jurisdictions declined in 2024 even as deduplicated bookings rose. Readers interpreting this gap should note the two data series measure different things: bookings reflect arrests processed into jail, while NIBRS reflects incidents reported to law enforcement.
02
Length of stay and booking rate both shape bed demand
A jail's daily population is a product of booking volume and average length of stay. Pasquo Planners' 2026 forecast projects 2050 bed need of 458–699 at 20.5 bookings/day depending on ALOS (19–29 days), illustrating how sensitive facility sizing is to both factors.
03
Recidivism has declined over the past decade
Per WSU's 2023 Progress Report, jail 1-year recidivism declined from 35% (2015) to 18% (2019). In the more recent WCSO data, individuals released on personal recognizance in 2024 reappeared in 2025 bookings at approximately 21%, lower than the general re-booking rate of 27.3%.
04
Booking rates differ by race relative to population share
Black and Native American residents appear in WCSO booking data at rates higher than their share of the county population by a factor of two to three. This pattern is present across charge types and is documented in this dashboard and elsewhere in the justice planning literature.
05
Book-and-release composition in 2025
Of individuals released within 12 hours in 2025, approximately 84% were booked on misdemeanor or warrant charges. The data includes 34 instances in 2025 of serious violent felony book-and-release, with median time in custody approximately 4.8 hours (likely reflecting processing time).
06
Ordinance 2023-039 contains an existing expansion trigger
Sections 5.1(c) and 9.4 of the ordinance reference an 85% / 8-of-12-month threshold as the mechanism for considering expansion of an operational facility. This is a pre-existing provision of the voter-approved governance structure.
2023–2025 Change by Charge Category
Change in unique bookings by arrest type, 2023 vs. 2025
Source: WCSO Public Booking Data.
Data methodology note: All booking statistics on this dashboard are derived
from the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office public booking database, deduplicated by Booking Number
to count unique booking events rather than individual charges. Electronic Home Detention (EHD)
bookings are noted where included. Population-based rates use OFM Whatcom County population
estimates. Chuckanut Health Foundation, April 2026. Chuckanut Health Foundation's Executive Director serves as
co-chair of the Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force (IPRTF) referenced in Ordinance 2023-039, this disclosure is provided so readers
can weigh that connection in assessing the framing of this dashboard.
⚠ Beta Project, This data initiative is under active development. Figures, methodology, and content are subject to revision. If you notice an error, have additional data, or want to flag an omission, please email info@chuckanuthealthfoundation.org. We are grateful for corrections.