How to Read the Data
The Charges Database Problem
Critical Context, Read This First
The WCSO booking data is a charges database. Each row is a charge, not a booking, and not a person.
When a single person is booked on four charges, that creates four rows. When someone is booked three times in a year on two charges each, that creates six rows. Raw charge counts dramatically overstate the apparent severity and volume of what's happening in the jail. The correct way to understand the facility is to deduplicate to unique bookings, then identify the most serious charge per booking, because that's what actually determines how someone is held, what bail is set, and what the system's response is. The numbers below use this methodology throughout.
Raw charge rows 2025
47,573
What most people see when they open the dataset. Misleading for population analysis.
Unique bookings (deduplicated)
4,743
The actual number of times someone entered the jail. Average 2.5 charges per booking.
Unique individuals (NameID)
3,519
The number of distinct people who touched the system. Average 1.35 bookings per person.
Most serious charge analysis
↓
What this dashboard uses. The highest-severity charge per booking determines the meaningful category.
Most Serious Charge
What Each Booking Was Actually About, 2025
Methodology
Each booking is assigned the most serious charge it contains, using a severity hierarchy from violent felony down to administrative hold. This reflects how bail decisions, detention decisions, and case processing actually work, the most serious charge determines the response. A booking with both a misdemeanor warrant and a DUI is classified as DUI. A booking with a warrant and a burglary is classified as a felony.
Warrant/Admin as most serious
31.4%
About 1 in 3 bookings, FTA warrant, DOC detainer, probation hold, or court commitment as most serious charge
Warrant / Administrative
DUI as most serious
23.9%
Largest category involving a new offense, primarily alcohol-impaired driving
Traffic / DUI
Violent felony (combined)
7.5%
2.9% violent felony + 4.6% serious violent felony as most serious charge
Violent Felony
Non-violent, non-DUI total
68.6%
Bookings where the most serious charge falls outside violent felony and DUI categories
Other Categories
Complexity
How Many Charges Per Booking, The Complexity Picture
Why This Matters
Multiple charges per booking don't necessarily mean multiple crimes. One incident can generate many charges, a DUI stop might produce DUI, DWLS, no valid license, and failure to appear on a prior charge all in the same booking. Understanding charge count distribution helps explain why the raw CSV has 47,573 rows when only 4,743 people were booked.
2025 Booking Data · Chuckanut Health Foundation analysis
Charges Per Booking, Distribution
4,743 bookings · 47,573 total charge rows · avg 2.5 charges per booking
Source: WCSO Booking Data 2025. Analysis: Chuckanut Health Foundation.
2025 Booking Data · Chuckanut Health Foundation analysis
Bookings Per Individual
3,519 unique individuals · most booked once · 22% returned in 2025
Source: WCSO Booking Data 2025. NameID used as individual identifier.
Warrant Deep Dive
What "Warrant / Administrative" Actually Means
The 31.4%, Unpacked
A "warrant/administrative" booking means the most serious charge on the booking is a pre-existing court order or administrative hold, not a new arrest. This category covers Failure to Appear (FTA) warrants, DOC detainers, probation violations, fugitive warrants, and court commitments. The FTA/FTC notation in the offense description indicates the warrant is for not appearing on a prior charge. The top underlying original charges are examined below; they are largely misdemeanor-level offenses.
2,112
bookings with at least one warrant/admin charge
43.3% of all 2025 bookings (broad definition: incl. DOC detainers, probation holds, fugitive warrants)
55.4%
of those had no other charge type
1,170 bookings, all charges were warrant/administrative type
50%
had no prior booking in 2023–2024
First-time appearances in the 3-year dataset
What FTA Warrants Were Originally For
The "/FTA" or "/FTC" suffix on an offense description means the warrant is for Failure to Appear on that prior charge. These are the top original charges people missed court on, and had warrants issued:
1
Theft 3rd Degree
480 FTA instances
Misdemeanor theft under $750. Individuals missed a court appearance on this charge, resulting in an FTA warrant being issued.
Misdemeanor
2
DWLS 3rd Degree
469 FTA instances
Driving While License Suspended, typically for unpaid fines or failure to appear on traffic infractions.
Traffic / Financial
3
Assault 4th Degree
225 FTA instances
Misdemeanor assault. A missed court appearance on this charge resulted in an FTA warrant.
Misdemeanor
4
Criminal Trespass 2nd
172 FTA instances
Misdemeanor trespass. Individuals missed a court date on this charge.
Misdemeanor
5
Burglary 2nd Degree
143 FTA instances
Entering a building unlawfully. A Class B felony; individuals missed court on this charge.
Felony-level
6
Criminal Trespass 1st
120 FTA instances
Gross misdemeanor trespass, returning to a location after being warned off. Individuals missed court on this charge.
Gross Misdemeanor
What the Composition Shows
The top six FTA original charges by volume are: Theft 3rd Degree, DWLS 3rd Degree, Assault 4th Degree, Criminal Trespass 2nd, Burglary 2nd Degree, and Criminal Trespass 1st. Four of the six are misdemeanor or gross misdemeanor-level. Two involve a property or traffic offense. The research literature on FTA rates links missed appearances to factors including unstable housing, lack of transportation, and difficulty reaching counsel, though individual circumstances vary.
Return Analysis
Warrant-Only Individuals, Prior History and Return Rates
2023–2025 Booking Data · Chuckanut Health Foundation analysis
Prior History of Warrant-Only 2025 Individuals
What were warrant-only 2025 bookers charged with in 2023–2024?
Source: WCSO 2023–2025. Individuals with warrant-only bookings in 2025 tracked back through prior years. Top non-warrant charges shown.
2025 Data · Chuckanut Health Foundation analysis
Warrant-Only Return Rate, Within 2025
Within-year 2025 return rate for warrant-only individuals vs. general quick-release population
Source: WCSO 2025. NameID tracked through calendar year. General BAR population return rate 20% shown for comparison.
Reading the Return Rate
The 43.7% within-year return rate for warrant-only individuals is higher than the roughly 20% rate for the general quick-release population. The warrant-only group's original charges, when they had prior bookings, were predominantly theft, DUI, and driving violations. The research literature on recidivism documents multiple factors associated with elevated return rates, including housing instability and unaddressed behavioral health need; individual circumstances vary.
By Agency
Where Bookings Come From, 2025
Jail Use Report 2025 · WCSO
Bookings by Law Enforcement Agency
4,743 total bookings · BPD: 43.6% by Arrest Origin (2,070 bookings); 45.7% by Booking Agency per WCSO Jail Use Report
Source: WCSO Jail Use Annual Report 2025.
2025 Data · Chuckanut Health Foundation analysis
Most Serious Charge Category, BPD vs. WCSO
Bellingham drives the warrant and misdemeanor share; WCSO has proportionally more serious charges
Source: WCSO Booking Data 2025. Analysis: Chuckanut Health Foundation.