Arlington officer fired over child porn allegations

Published 1:30 am Friday, June 19, 2026

The city of Arlington fired a police officer who was accused of possessing images of child sexual abuse and then allegedly violated a court order.

Arlington announced last week that Dustin Bartlett, a former “officer of the year,” was being terminated from the police department.

Deputies with the Island County Sheriff’s Office arrested Bartlett last month after hard drives containing child pornography were found inside a closet at his Camano Island home, according to court documents.

Prosecutors initially charged Bartlett in Island County Superior Court May 22 with three counts of possession of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct in the first degree and one count of assault in the fourth degree, domestic violence. He pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors hope to amend the charges by adding a count of domestic violence violation of a court order.

After his preliminary hearing in court, Bartlett posted $100,000 and was released from jail on May 21. Under the terms of his release, the court ordered Barlett not to go to his Camano Island home or have contact with his girlfriend, who was both a witness and an alleged victim.

Later, on May 29, a neighbor of Bartlett’s house reported to police that she saw Bartlett and his girlfriend trying to get into the house, according to a report by a deputy with the Island County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies responded to the house and knocked, but nobody answered. Because they feared Bartlett went to the house to harm the woman, the deputies decided they had exigent circumstances to enter the house.

The front door was tied shut with a belt and partially barricaded, the report states. They cut the belt and went inside, searching the house room to room. The deputies encountered the woman, who said nobody else was inside the house.

The deputies, however, saw a pair of men’s underwear and shorts on the ground in a bedroom. They went to the walk-in closet and found Bartlett hidden behind a pile of clothes, the report states. He was arrested.

The woman told deputies that she invited him over to go through paperwork in an attempt to get the no-contact order lifted, the report states.

In response to the alleged violation of the court order, Judge Carolyn Cliff revoked Bartlett’s bail.

Although Bartlett’s girlfriend wants the no-contact order lifted, she was the one who reported him in the first place. She allegedly saw him looking at child pornography on his computer and called police, according to a detective’s report. She reported that he pushed her away.

Deputies did not initially arrest Bartlett. Four days later, however, the woman again contacted deputies and asked them to respond to the home. She said she searched a walk-in closet and found a small knob that appeared to be out of place on a rack where he hung his bulletproof vest. She pulled the knob and found the two hard drives, the report states.

A detective reviewed the folders on the hard drive and found 80 files containing child pornography, including videos depicting the sexual abuse of children, according to the police report.