PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles Police Department will soon have dedicated funding for law enforcement officers to provide support for individuals in need.
Six city council members on Tuesday unanimously passed a memorandum of agreement between the city and BlueBridge Alliance, a nonprofit organization that provides financial and logistical support for compassionate acts by law enforcement officers.
Council member Brendan Meyer was not in attendance due to an excused absence.
BlueBridge Alliance has three main goals, according to co-founder and CEO Brian Spracklen: to allow officers to help people in need, to strengthen relationships between officers and their communities and to enhance officer culture and mental health.
“The program is pretty simple,” Spracklen said. “Officers are provided with debit cards that carry a modest but effective balance, allowing them to help people out with food, necessary medication, a hotel, a locksmith and more.”
BlueBridge’s program began active operations with 11 pilot agencies in 2022. It was supported by donations and state Legislature appropriations of about $200,000 from the 2023-2024 budget.
During its first year, 46 felonies and 28 misdemeanors were prevented or averted through the provision of aid, according to the state Department of Commerce.
“Sometimes, it’s just a thing you need right now that will turn you around to doing better things,” Port Angeles chief of police Brian Smith said.
Spracklen said the pilot programs saw “remarkable success with officers being able to connect with folks that previously might have been overlooked, or who might have had negative experiences with law enforcement officers in the past.”
The state Legislature then provided BlueBridge with another $500,000 in the 2024-2025 budget. That funding allowed BlueBridge to onboard another 50 agencies, with Port Angeles being the 14th from this new cycle.
The Legislature’s funds help pay BlueBridge’s fixed onboarding costs and provide matching funds for the Port Angeles Police Department (PAPD) of up to $2,500.
For additional funding, BlueBridge will help the city with community fundraising and will provide “reasonable funding resources as available,” according to a city council memo.
BlueBridge reserves the right to retain 10 percent of the gross amount of donations to cover the program’s operational costs, the memo stated.
Smith said he thinks many community organizations would support this program, which “helps strengthen the relationship between officers and the community by helping them provide resources to individuals who are struggling.”
Although nonprofits can provide resources to individuals, Smith said it can be easier for the officer to simply provide the resource in the moment.
“We’re often with people when nobody else is with them,” Smith said. “It’s not as simple as you might think getting one of those nonprofits connected with that person to take care of that need that will help them out of that bad situation.”
“I’ve seen a pair of pants and a gallon of water change someone’s entire trajectory,” council member Amy Miller said.
Many law enforcement officers already are providing this type of support through personal funds, Spracklen said.
This program gives PAPD “an organized way to do things that we’ve done in a sort of ad hoc, disorganized manner in the past,” Smith said.
“It’s always positive when the government or private partners are able to step up in meaningful ways to fund the things that are already being paid for by civic employees,” council member Navarra Carr said.
The next step is to raise funds that will be the “seed money to really get the program off the ground,” Spracklen said.
After that, law enforcement officers will go through use of funds training and be provided with a BlueBridge debit card that is linked to PAPD’s BlueBridge spending account.
Officers who use the debit cards must keep records of what they spent the money on and must operate in accordance with BlueBridge guidelines.
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Reporter Emma Maple can be reached by email at emma.maple@peninsuladailynews.com.
