November 6, 2008 in Voices

New officer welcomes change

Bingham had commuted 300 miles a day

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Lisa Leinberger photo

Officer Abe Bingham started at the Medical Lake Police Department on Oct. 1.
(Full-size photo)

The Medical Lake Police Department has found another officer to serve the community.

Abe Bingham joined the force Oct. 1 and is excited to get to know the community.

A graduate of Eastern Washington University, Bingham, 33, originally studied geographic information systems. He found there wasn’t a lot of demand for that line of work and decided to attend the police academy.

“I was always into the service side of things,” he said.

His first job as a police officer was in Ritzville. He enjoyed the rural atmosphere of the town and learned to appreciate police work in a small city.

“You can see the case from start to finish,” he said. He had the opportunity to act as an officer and do a little detective work as well.

Bingham left the force in Ritzville to be part of the tactical response team at Hanford. The job included a lot of high-level training in close-quarters battles, hostage training and SWAT training, and offered him an opportunity to take college classes. But there was a lot of down time and he commuted every day from his home in Cheney to Hanford – 300 miles round trip.

With a wife, Mandy, and two young sons, Joshua, 4, and Grayson, 15 months, Bingham wasn’t getting much time to spend with his family. Most days he left at 3 a.m. and didn’t get home until 8 p.m., after the kids were already in bed.

“The turnaround time was … there was not a lot of sleep,” he said.

One day not long ago, Mandy, who works in the medical examiner’s office, ran into a friend of Bingham’s at a crime scene. The friend mentioned the job opening in Medical Lake and Bingham applied.

“Yeah, I think it’s time to get closer to home,” he said.

Bingham grew up on a farm in Garfield, Wash. He met his wife at EWU. The two bought some property and are in the process of building a house.

“It just always felt like home,” he said of Cheney.

In his new position as a Medical Lake police officer, Bingham is looking forward to getting to know the community.

“I want to get back to something I really like to do.”

He noted that Medical Lake is different from most cities its size since it doesn’t have a lot of businesses or a lot of bars. He has noticed that many people work at Eastern State Hospital or EWU or in Spokane and come home to their bedroom community of Medical Lake.

When he has time off, he likes to go fishing, hunting and camping. He also spent a recent day off in Green Bluff with his family.

In January, Bingham expects to attend an equivalency course at the police academy to brush up on state laws, but for now, he is patrolling the community.

“Policing is all the same wherever you go,” he said.

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