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By Jennifer Morrison, Commissioner, Vermont Department of Public Safety
Last fall, Vermonters delivered a clear message: They want meaningful change on the issues impacting their daily lives: property taxes, education, housing, and affordability. One common concern unites all these challenges: the need to ensure the safety of our communities, downtowns, neighborhoods, and personal property.
I have spent nearly 35 years living and working in Vermont — not only as your commissioner of Public Safety but also as a mother, coach, neighbor, police officer, and policy advisor. My commitment to vibrant, attractive, and safe communities runs deep. Yet many of our communities face significant public health and safety challenges that threaten our shared way of life.
When I reflect on what I’m hearing and seeing across the state, I think about a pendulum that has swung too far in one direction and needs to be rebalanced. On one end is an overly punitive system that can overlook the potential for rehabilitation and the rights of individuals. On the other end is an approach so lenient that repeat offenders aren’t held accountable for the harm they inflict on our communities. Today, our policies have drifted too far toward leniency, and the damage — measured in undermined trust, diminished social cohesion, and degraded public spaces — can no longer be ignored.
Governor Scott’s proposed omnibus public safety bill takes a commonsense, measured approach to restoring balance. It recognizes the close ties between public health and public safety and tackles substance use, mental health, and community well-being all at once. Healthy individuals build stronger families, and strong families support thriving schools. Safe neighborhoods attract residents and visitors, fueling local businesses and energizing our downtowns. In short, these efforts create a foundation for a robust, resilient community.
Over the past two years, we’ve worked productively with the Legislature to address persistent problems. Now, we must build on that partnership by providing the right tools to hold a small number of individuals accountable — those whose repeated actions disproportionately damage local businesses, neighborhoods, and public spaces. Our proposals include commonsense reforms:
- Enhanced accountability: Bail revocation for repeat offenders and improved pre-trial supervision ensure that those who repeatedly harm our communities face timely and proportionate consequences.
- Fair treatment for adults: Repealing policies like “raise the age” reaffirms that adults must be held to the full standards of accountability under our laws.
- Balanced intervention: Ending “catch-and-release” practices and improving access to recovery and mental health services at critical intervention points ensure that our measures are both just and effective.
These reforms are essential at a time when Vermont is facing rising drug trafficking, increased violent crime, and the resultant uptick in gun violence and homicides. When serious offenders perceive our state as a soft target, our communities bear the cost — and that must stop.
At the heart of these reforms lies our shared social contract. This contract is the unspoken agreement that binds us as Vermonters: It represents our mutual commitment to support one another, hold each other accountable, and ensure that our rights come with responsibilities. It promises that our communities will be safe havens where every individual — whether a resident, a visitor, or someone seeking help — can thrive. Our proposed measures aim to renew that contract. They are not merely punitive steps but a balanced response that combines accountability with compassion, enforcement with opportunities for rehabilitation.
By reaffirming our commitment to the social contract, we are pledging to safeguard our parks, neighborhoods, and downtowns — not only as spaces of economic opportunity but as symbols of our collective trust and responsibility. When every individual knows that their actions have consequences and that our community will stand by those in need, we create a foundation for a safer, healthier, and more vibrant Vermont.
We owe Vermonters our best efforts to uphold this promise. By enacting these measures, we can recalibrate our approach to public safety and renew the social contract that underpins our shared quality of life. Together, let’s create a Vermont where every corner of our state reflects the security, respect, and opportunity we all deserve.
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Categories: Press Release, Public Safety
dittos; clearly, concisely and well presented
Thank you for this and your service. Appreciated.
Hmmmm, … the writer mentions ‘a pendulum that has swung too far in one direction and needs to be rebalanced…’; ‘accountability’; and ‘fair treatment’;…
I remember just a couple of short years ago when two young State Troopers (two Nathans) were effectively fired for saying bad-sounding things, while playing a game that required them to make up and say bad-sounding things (rap lyrics, can you imagine). They were off duty, in a private residence, in the USA, which still has a first Amendment. The initial reports were that this event reached the desk of the Commisioner of Public Safety, who easily waved it off, very likely because the Nathans were playing a game, a game that required them to create and say bad sounding things, (you probably win by saying the worst things!) while they were off duty, in a private residence, in the USA.
But then the very righteous people got wind of it, and started whispering and wringing their hands about it. And they whispered to legislators and wanted to show how righteous they were. I remember one VSP representative (DET. SGT Amy, now retired) on a radio program discussing the firings, and DET SGT. Amy said essentially, ‘what if they really thought those things?’
Imagine being forced to leave your job, your career, because you MAY have THOUGHT something? Well after the righteous ones weighed in, the Commissioner of Public Safety (this writer?) and all up and down the food chain collapsed and forced these two young public servants out, that’s what I remember.
Yes, that was a pendulum swung WAY too far.
Time for accountability and fair treatment?
Time to apologize to them, offer them their job back?
Amen, Ms. Morrison. Yes, let’s. You present wonderful concepts with which I heartily agree.
What concrete action steps do you have to implement these proposals?
How do we prevail upon our recalcitrant legislators, prosecutors, and judges to bust through the logjam of their milquetoast inaction and diffidence?
How do we hold them accountable to actually enforce the majority of criminal statutes and adhere to the penalties and sentencing guidelines already on the books?
https://vermontdailychronicle.com/green-proposed-catch-and-release-solutions/
https://www.reformer.com/opinion/columnists/commentary-martin-green-some-new-legislative-proposals-for-public-safety/article_a80c45e4-d80c-11ef-9d96-3309e33014f4.html
https://vermontdailychronicle.com/letters-gervais-on-the-need-for-more-data/
Amen, Ms. Morrison. Yes, let’s. These are all wonderful concepts.
What concrete action steps do you have to implement these proposals?
How do we induce those who are ostensibly representing the will of we the people to legislate, prosecute, and adjudicate guided by common sense, integrity, and genuine concern not only for criminals, but their victims?
How do we inspire them to embrace a profound commitment to true justice and public safety for all our citizens?
How do we prevail upon our recalcitrant legislators, prosecutors, and judges to bust through the logjam of their milquetoast inaction and diffidence?
How do we break through their timidity and myopia to motivate them to restore to their proper balance the retributive, deterrent, and rehabilitative components of sentencing?
How do we hold them accountable to actually enforce the majority of criminal statutes and adhere to sentencing guidelines and penalties already on the books?
Good concepts have done zilch to move the needle thus far when even the most basic attempts at criminal justice and bail reform hang impotently on the wall of their committees.
Please remember that we are dealing with a legislature that just whiffed when the easiest pitch—H.380–was thrown over home plate this session. And yet, the next pitch the catcher called for was H.381, yet another inane attempt to disarm law-abiding citizens and further erode our Second Amendment rights. And lest we already forget as far back as January, 2025, the first proposal offered before our legislature even convened was a bill for certain citizens to surrender their firearms to gun shops.
The greatest proposals and most common sense bills in the world will do zero when we’re dealing with a legislature (and certain corrupted prosecutors and judges) engulfed in the blinding and polluted fog of their own arrogance and stupidity.
https://vermontdailychronicle.com/green-proposed-catch-and-release-solutions/
If the existing laws were enforced, would we need to enact any new ones?
I know this would be a pipe dream considering the current slate of legislators installed under the golden dome, but how about legislation to make it easier to remove judges and prosecutors who refuse to uphold standing law?