05/29/2026
Deputy Trent Leach does a lot: he’s on the Sheriff’s Office SWAT team, is an EMT, teaches Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (i.e. Stop the Bleed), and is a certified drone pilot and instructor. He is also the resident deputy assigned to Point Roberts. But managing variety is consistent with who Trent is: he has also done a lot.
Trent’s route to law enforcement was neither linear nor likely. After attending Eastern Washington University, he moved to the Portland area. Trent worked in construction for a time and as a coach and personal trainer before he got into retail management. His wife got him interested in the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO).
Though he grew up here, the Bellingham native (and Sehome High School alum) had never visited Point Roberts, where he now lives with his wife and young children. It was a bit of culture shock.
And not just the international distinctions between “The Point” and the rest of Whatcom County, as well as British Columbia, Canada. The pace itself is different.
As a SWAT officer, Trent loves the hard-charging, go-getter style. Which is the polar opposite of life as “the law” in Point Roberts and the patient work of building trust and credibility.
“Building and maintaining relationships is the most important thing, as law enforcement, that we can do,” he says.
That’s especially important on The Point, where someone he might ticket one day could be the person who’s selling him gas or groceries the next. And, on that spit of land smaller than five square miles, that very closeness could be challenging.
But Trent embraces these challenges of community policing; he makes notes, pays attention and stays engaged. He realizes that’s a luxury other deputies might not have.
“Maybe they wouldn’t have the time to facilitate all those conversations,” says Trent. “But it’s much more laid back at the Point.”
After nearly five years of living separated from the WCSO by two international borders, Trent has adapted well to the whip-saw mix of teaching, patrolling and spending time on the beach with his family to hard-charging SWAT response and high-intensity drone investigation.
Thank you for your service, Deputy Leach!
