Update: Bellevue Police Foundation Breakfast Raises More than $100,000 to Fight Crime

The Bellevue Police Foundation raised more than $100,000 to purchase crime-fighting tools for the at its third annual fundraising breakfast, the group reported.

The breakfast last Friday featured a keynote address by true crime author Ann Rule, who spoke about the history of policing that she experienced as the granddaughter of a Midwestern sheriff, as a rookie Seattle police officer in the 1950s and as a true crime writer for four decades.

Rule said that science and technology are now enabling police departments to revisit unsolved crimes that she wrote about in the 1970s.

More than 200 business and community leaders attended the event at the Westin Grand Ballroom, the foundation reported. Sponsors included The Westin and sponsored by Puget Sound Energy, Perkins Coie, Sweeney Conrad, The Bellevue Collection, and Barrier Motors, according to the foundation.

Since it was founded in 2009, the Bellevue Police Foundation, a nonprofit organization, has contributed more than $147,500 in equipment and training to the Bellevue Police Department for equipment that it would otherwise couldn't afford to purchase, according to the foundation.

Equipment purchuased includes night vision scopes, police dogs, iPads, policing software and the used by downtown Bellevue police officers.

From the foundation's press release:

This year’s theme, “Using Tomorrow’s Technology for Law Enforcement Today” emphasized the importance of recent purchases by the foundation during 2011, such as the purchase of iPads, SWAT night vision goggles, T-3 electric vehicle, computer forensics software and a new police K-9 named Diego. Chief Linda Pillo of the Bellevue Police Department was thrilled to see the large turnout and acknowledged how the tools granted to the department assists officers in working more efficiently in predicting crime patterns and communicate remotely with both investigators and witnesses. The Puget Sound Energy Foundation also awarded a grant to the Bellevue Police Foundation which facilitated the purchase of CrimeView Desktop analytical software package. 

To contribute

For more information about the Bellevue Police Foundation or to donate financially, visit www.bellevuepolicefoundation.org or contact Linda Tjelle at ltjelle@bellevuepolicefoundation.org.