BELLEVUE, Wash — Bellevue police are rolling out a unique crime-fighting unit to help protect all the holiday shoppers this season.
It's called the Downtown Unit and it's made up of highly trained individuals who are all a part of the SWAT team.
The unit tackles overall crime in the city, but this holiday season retail theft is a focus.
Just last month, two women were caught on security cameras placing store merchandise into their purses while browsing through an electronics store in Bellevue, police said.
The same women were spotted at the Northface store, tucking items underneath their clothes, before leaving, said police.
A member of the Downtown Unit was able to spot the two women before they left town. Police said the women came all the way from Oregon.
"It's one of those things where we try to make sure we deploy our resources more efficiently and try to deal with that, and that's part of the reason we deployed this Downtown Unit. It increases our response time, for highly trained people to scenes," said Major Andrew Popochock with the Bellevue Police Department.
Bellevue police said the Downtown Unit is also working to increase community safety, reduce the fear of crime, and enhance the quality of life for people living in Bellevue.