When Molly McBride was hired by the Bellevue Police Department in January 1978, Bellevue was a sleepy Eastside suburb of just 70,000 residents, a far cry from the bustling city it is today. Detective McBride recently marked her 40th anniversary as a Bellevue cop, and is the longest-serving member in the history of the Bellevue Police Department.

McBride was hired on Jan. 16, 1978 and her first duty in the department was a patrol officer, a position she held for the first seven years of her career. She was one of only 10 females in the police department at a time when law enforcement was primarily a male dominated profession. In February 1985, McBride was promoted to detective in the investigations division. While in that division, she investigated property crimes, crimes against persons and assaults. She was the first female to be assigned to the Detective Unit.

In June 1997 until March 2011, McBride returned to the patrol section. During that time, her peers selected her as Officer of the Year for her work ethic and outstanding ability to deal with people in crisis, according to the department. During her second stint in patrol, she became a field training officer, helping to train a number of new officers as they learned the ins and outs of police work. McBride put her people skills to good use as a member of the department’s Hostage Negotiation Team, and has successfully negotiated resolutions at a number of incident scenes. McBride became a peer counselor and has participated numerous times on interviews of police officer applicants. Nearly every current member of the Bellevue Police department has had McBride involved in some portion of their hiring or training process.

In March 2011, 25 years after her first experience as a detective, McBride returned to the Investigations Section as a special assault unit detective, where she investigated crimes against children.

In October 2016 she transferred to the hiring unit as a background investigator, checking the background of individuals that were applying to become Bellevue police officers.

McBride has been married for 38 years. She met her husband John McBride while both were officers at the Bellevue Police Department. The McBrides open their home every year on Thanksgiving and Christmas to all Bellevue police officers that have to work on those holidays, providing a full holiday meal to those officers who must be away from their families.

McBride has no plans of retiring any time soon, according to the department.