Blaine Police Department calls for SWAT gear on deck, purchasing shields and helmets

Blaine City Council approved the police department’s request to use federal Covid-19 stimulus funds for about a $41,000 emergency purchase of tactical gear during its October 10 meeting.

Blaine police chief Donnell Tanksley requested the city use a portion of its unallocated American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to purchase three ballistic shields and six helmets. The city has about $700,000 in unallocated ARPA funds, said finance director Dan Heverling, which it will need to use by the end of 2024.

Tanksley told council that Blaine officers arrived at the May 25 lockdown on Blaine school district’s main campus, prompted by anonymous threatening text messages, without proper gear.

“Many of our officers went in with nothing. Just their vest and their weapons. No shields, no helmets,” he said. “They were called to duty. They acted and they did what we expected them to do. However, I believe we should prepare them and outfit them to go into these situations.”

No one was physically harmed during the lockdown and the student who sent the text messages was later arrested.

Tanksley originally requested $31,000 from the city to purchase two shields and six helmets. But after Tanksley told councilmembers during the meeting that he’d eventually need another shield, they decided to add the extra shield to the original request. Each shield costs about $10,000, Tanksley said, which makes the total request about $41,000.

Shields and helmets are hard to find because many police departments are purchasing them right now, Tanksley said. Most of the small cities in Whatcom County have helmets and shields for officers assigned to special events teams.

“A few years ago, ballistic shields and ballistic helmets were mostly reserved for Special Weapons and Tactics Teams (SWAT) and other specialized law enforcement teams,” Tanksley wrote in a memo to city council. “However, we now realize there is an urgent need to have these tools readily available for patrol officers, detectives, supervisors, and school resource officers.”

Tanksley wrote that the FBI’s data on law enforcement officers killed and assaulted showed that 73 officers died during the line of duty in 2021. Of those, 14 were officers serving cities of 10,000 or fewer people. Most officers were killed by firearms.

Blaine officers typically wear ballistic vests, which don’t protect the head, arms and legs. Blaine only has one ballistic shield, but the department is unable to use it because its protection level can’t be verified, Tanksley said. Most shields only last five years but this one is estimated to be over 20 years old. Only 65 percent of Blaine officers have a ballistic helmet, he added.

Two Blaine officers are certified ballistic shield instructors as of September. They are set to train the city’s other officers on proper use and best practices of shield deployments. Once the department is trained, each Blaine officer will check out a shield every time they start their shift, carry it in their police vehicle and then return it at the end of their shift, Tanksley said.

The city does not need to go through the bid process for emergency purchases. To ensure the city was getting a competitive price for the equipment, councilmember Eric Davidson asked that the motion to approve the purchase include a clause that the equipment would be purchased once Tanksley checked with other local agencies on the prices they paid for the gear. The city would then make price negotiations, if needed. 

City council voted 6-0, with councilmember Garth Baldwin excused, on the motion to emergency purchase the tactical gear.