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State stepping in to help troubled city
By Michael Donoghue, Vermont News First
The short-staffed Vermont State Police will resume foot patrols beginning this afternoon in the trouble-plagued city of Burlington, Vermont News First has been told.
Off-duty State Troopers were initially asked to volunteer to fill either 4- or 8-hour shifts, but as of Friday department members said they were told there may be a need to send on-duty troopers to Burlington to fill the patrol quotas.
Shifting on-duty troopers to Burlington would reduce the amount of state police coverage provided in some nearby counties. VSP is facing its own shortage of personnel due to retirements and other departures. The department, like most police agencies are struggling to fill vacancies.
It is all part of the new 14-point public safety plan that Republican Gov. Phil Scott’s administration has developed in recent weeks. It is designed to respond to recent pleas from Progressive Party Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak for help with the ongoing disorder in her city.
Shootings, stabbings, beatings – including one fatal — open drug use and sales, panhandlers and the homeless have created monumental problems for Burlington city officials and have discouraged the public from going downtown.
The cost of the Vermont State Police patrols will be picked up by state taxpayers and not the city of Burlington, officials said. The initial plan is to have the Vermont State Police available from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31 and the coverage time is noon to 8 p.m. to start.
The foot patrols, which will focus on Burlington City Hall Park and the Church Street Marketplace, could be extended into the new year, if needed, officials said.
Three years ago, when Burlington called on Vermont State Police to help fill night shifts in the downtown area, the city reimbursed the state of Vermont from all the officer vacancies on the city force.
The request for help at that time came in the aftermath of a move by the Progressive Party that led to a resolution before the Burlington City Council to defund the police and slash staffing in June 2020.
The Council voted 9-3 to reduce the authorized strength of the Burlington Police from 105 to 74 officers and to redirect funding to programs that support people of color.
The six Progressive Party councilors, Zoraya Hightower, Jack Hanson, Jane Stromberg, Max Tracy, Perri Freeman, Brian Pine were joined by three Democrats, Karen Paul, Franklin Paulino and Sarah Carpenter.
Out of the nine positive votes to defund police, eight City Councilors have moved on. Only Sarah Carpenter in Ward 4 remains on the panel.
Democrats Joan Shannon, Chip Mason and Independent Ali Dieng voted against defunding police and have moved on.
Public Safety Commissioner Jennifer Morrison said Friday afternoon State Police spokesman Adam Silverman could answer questions about the current deployment. Silverman later said he was directed to send questions to Interim Burlington Police Chief Sean Burke or the Governor’s Office.
Chief Burke said the city of Burlington is not expected to pay for any of the extra patrols provided by at least three enforcement agencies in the state of Vermont.
“We appreciate this partnership,” Burke said.
The Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles, which has about 28 sworn law enforcement officers, also is expected to send some of its staff to do traffic work in the city. Wade Cochran, chief of the enforcement and safety division, said his officers will begin the Burlington detail on Monday.
Meanwhile, the Vermont Department of Liquor and Lottery will have investigators, who are certified as fulltime law enforcement officers, doing routine compliance checks at bars and stores, according to Skyler Genest, the chief of enforcement.
Underage drinking and overserving patrons frequently lead to problems for the police to handle, he said.
The department has 14 police-trained investigators, including Tom Chenette, who retired from Burlington Police this summer after 20 years of service, Genest said.
Mulvaney-Stanak blamed Gov. Scott recently for not coming to the aid of the city with all its problems, but the Governor noted the Mayor never requested any help from the state. He responded to a question at a news conference that it was easier to blame others for your own failures.
Once the Mayor asked for help, Scott’s team created a short-term 14-point action plan that included state patrols in the city. It also created a special accountability docket in the criminal court in Chittenden County for repeat offenders. Vermont’s court system and the liberal outdated bail laws have failed to address the ongoing repeat offenders.
The criminal court in Chittenden County has identified nearly 200 repeat offenders that have 5 or more current pending cases that are clogging the docket. Their cases have been assigned to Judge Martin Maley, who is coming out of retirement, to run the pilot project. The idea is to use a mix of jail time, drug and mental health counseling and other services to address the ongoing problems.
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Categories: Burlington, Crime
Hope the citizens of NYC are watching how the abject failure of a progressive ( communist ) regime will ultimately fail.
The removal of 31 from BPD in 2020 per direction of City Hall is certainly manifesting itself in what the people of Burlington are calling tragedy. Yet the people of Vermont never planned on footing the bill for Burlington’s mistake coming from people who no little to nothing about policing or corrections. The cost of the Vermont State Police patrols will be picked up by state taxpayers and not the city of Burlington is beyond ridiculous ❗ However if that is the pricetag I believe all of City Hall appointments going forward should be done by a state vote. If Vermont citizens need to pay for Burlington’s mistakes, then Vermont citizens should have a say who runs City Hall in Burlington.
…….rvanornu…. ” I believe all of City Hall appointments going forward should be done by a state vote. If Vermont citizens need to pay for Burlington’s mistakes, then Vermont citizens should have a say who runs City Hall in Burlington.”……Couldn’t agree more…
This “pork’ that is brought back to home states is mostly decided by seniority. If there were two, or even three year term limits on all Federal offices that “pork” would be divided up between a much larger pool, and thus more equitable. That would mean 4-6 years in the House, and 12-18 years in the Senate, totaling a possible 24 years on the public payroll. If that is not enough time to bring your agenda to fruition, it was not meant to be. If your engenda is achieved, take the win and the adulations of your constituency, and retire undefeated !
Oops, this comment should have been posted under the article “Holt: When Public Service becomes a lifetime throne” I wondered what happened to it .
And once again the taxpayers of the rest of the SOV will be paying for the gross mismanagement of the city by the elected officials of the City of Burlington.How about the SOV floats a bond for the City of Burlington to cover the cost of paying these Troopers, and a COLA ? I found it ! here we go !!!!!
I totally agree Pat. They have no shame. They must think that the rest of tax payers in Vt. are stupid, but most of us are NOT! Primary case in point-they (previously) vote to defund their police and now ask the State for help, and on our dime! Yes, I am upset.
Gail, If the rest of the SOV does not already feel like Burlington’s “sugar daddy”, always there to bail them out, I don’t know what it will take !
Everything is now safe in Burlington and hurry and come do your Christmas shopping. Sorry for the loss of the SNAP program, but we have free food on Church Street to get you through this holiday season from the food banks so you can spend your money with us. Comment from Richard Day.
On behalf of my fellow Burlington residents, I extend our gratitude to all the tax-payers elsewhere in the state who so generously are footing the bill for our childish mistakes. That is the true spirit of Vermont.
Bill you are doubly welcome – not only have we taxpayers helped you educate your students, but we are selflessly giving up our state police coverage (but at least you’re paying us for that).
But they are still not paying their full share of property taxes! They are no where near current value.
Is Brattleboro next?
Curious if in recent history, any Vermont municipality with it’s own police dept has had the State Police supplement their coverage? Are the troopers permitted to wear those stiff-brimmed hats, or would that attire be considered “too fascist” a look for the snowflake majority of Burlington’s residents?
Careful now, don’t give them any ideas to whimper about, it might hurt a feeling.
They can always wear their ‘work’ uniform, BDU’s instead and will look less fascist, that should teach them!
1 Thessalonians 5:3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
It appears this theater of the absurd could be in it’s final Act. All the manuvering, all the posturing, all the demands upon resources (human ones above all) is taking a toll. Careful if taking a flight soon. Word going around air traffic controllers are taking a hint from Mike Johnson and staying home. No pay and more demands for their time and services – burnout and exhaustion doesn’t foster safety – just the opposite.
they should send the Guard in
This is not fair to other Vermont residents. The city leaders made the decision to defund the police and through their actions and rhetoric drove the city to the point of mayhem. Between them and the Chittenden States Attorney they made Burlington and Chittenden County what it is. The voters of these places need to bear the weight of their own decisions, most importantly picking up the tab. The city of Burlington made its own bed as said by Commissioner Morrison. It’s not all of Vermont’s residents’ duty to pay for their shortfalls and social experiments. Meanwhile towns throughout Vermont are contracting to pay sheriff’s departments to supplement their police coverage. Burlington and the surrounding towns should be doing the same. The state of Vermont should bill the city of Burlington for every bit of the expense of this Notice how the critics of the police department have mostly gone silent? Don’t get too comfortable, their focusing on ICE right now but they’ll be back.
………..”The voters of these places need to bear the weight of their own decisions, most importantly picking up the tab. The city of Burlington made its own bed “……..Couldn’t agree more…
This is so ridiculous. Thanks to a homelessness problem throughout Vermont and the sudden ending of the motel program (which was not a good use of money but neither is having no back up solution) folks who are unhoused have flocked to Burlington. The uptick was noticeable and palpable. To call it Burlington’s mistakes is absurd. It’s a Vermont problem of lack of resources. And the police dept has been re-funded for years now – and in any case no officers lost their jobs or were prevented from being hired because of that decision. Lack of officers was and is a nationwide problem so please, please, stop blaming that vote, which was dumb, yes, but did not actually result in any police losing their jobs. I’m so tired of this same old highly inaccurate story. The issues plaguing Burlington and Vermont are a lack of resources. We need more housing, more shelters, more mental health and substance use treatment – hell even if you believe they should all be locked up, the courts have been backed up for years and there are not enough prosecutors to try those cases anyway – and not enough prison cells to house them even if you could get them through the system. Stop blaming each other and start working together to figure out how to solve these issues with the little money we have.
Zoraya Hightower, Max Tracy, Brian Pine, Jane Stromberg, Perri Freeman, Jack Hanson.,(and to a lesser extent Sarah Carpenter and Karen Paul ) defunded the Police.
send them the bill.
Drug dealers across the state full endorse Gov Scott’s plan to send state troopers to Burlington!
Cartels also voiced their support, making Scott once again the most popular governor in the United States,
Now if you people in Burlington are afraid to shop there, maybe you should take a ride to St. Albans town and do your shopping, without having to trip over dirty needles and panhandlers. We would welcome the increase business. Hopefully the chance of getting robbed will be less as more people up there have guns to protect themselves. Comment from Richard Day.
Businesses in Central Vt. could realize boosts to business too if they noted in adds the negative aspects of doing business in Burlington. What gets me is the fact that Burlington, and Chittenden Co. in general, always seems to get the lion’s share of any “pork” that the state doles out, and the situation that area has found itself in proves that they are like irresponsible children in the way they handle money. It will be painful for the citizens of Chittenden County but the “gravy train” needs to end . Until the socialists that are responsible for this mismanagement are rightfully exposed, held responsible, and are voted out, that pain must be real, and consequential ! Personally,
As I was saying before my finger got in the way. Personally, it would probably take a medical situation for me not to take a long way around Burlington just so I don’t have to deal with their self imposed B.S. !
You KNOW there was a financial report that shows the increased sales tax coming from the Burlington businesses into the State coffers if we supply “protection”.
Is it still 2020? What is the current cap of police officers now vs 2020? What is the BPD budget now vs 2020? Everyone seems to forget the drama that the BPD went through vetting and hiring not one but TWO police chiefs only to have them quickly resign when their keyboard warrior alter egos were exposed. Then to bring in a chief who got his panties in a bunch after it was found that they protect their own inside and outside the precinct (see every police assault case and cases related to off duty officer conduct), that he instructed the department to NOT answer calls. The department was in shambles long before covid, but clearly these facts are going to fall on deaf ears. Yes, Burlington is not what it is. But it’s easy to fall into despair when your police department gives up on its town.
Again, Burlington has 2 Full Time PDs, BPD and UVM Police both certified PDs. And there is Chittenden Sheriff Office.
Gov Scott should bill them for service and tell them to Fix their own self created problem.
Like our failed education system small towns are paying for the failures of liberal/Marxist policies. Fie the DEI peson and hire another cop.