By Guy Page

Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak expressed disappointment Tuesday that Gov. Phil Scott did not notify her office before directing the Vermont State Police to begin patrolling downtown Burlington. 

But the governor’s top cop says the decision was handled appropriately through law enforcement channels at “an operational level,” Public Safety Commissioner told VDC in a phone interview this morning. 

The additional patrols are expected to begin today and continue to cover the city’s hosting next month of the Conference of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers (NEG/ECP) – and perhaps beyond.

Mulvaney-Stanak was the first to mention the new VSP downtown patrols.

“Governor Scott has directed the Vermont State Police to have a patrol presence in Downtown Burlington to help supplement the work of the Burlington Police Department. We anticipate this change to start on Wednesday and continue through mid-August,” Mulvaney-Stanak said in a statement.

The mayor said she would have preferred to receive direct notice from the governor before the deployment was announced.

“While it is unfortunate that the Governor did not directly notify my office about this, our City welcomes any state partners that would like to help make our community safer,” she said.

Morrison told VDC the communication occurred between Vermont State Police Director Col. Matthew Birmingham and Burlington Police Chief Shawn Burke, rather than between the governor and the mayor.

“This is an operational level discussion that I asked Col. Birmingham to have with Chief Burke, and he did so,” Morrison said.

Morrison said the state had already been planning an increased Vermont State Police presence in Burlington for the upcoming meeting of New England governors and eastern Canadian premiers in early August. Officials decided to expand that deployment before and after the event.

“We were going to be having a large footprint there for that event, and in conversations with the governor’s office, we decided that we should extend the shoulders of that presence to be a little broader than just around that event to help protect the gains we made last fall in this space,” Morrison said. 

She emphasized that the state and Burlington police maintain a strong working relationship.

“We work great with Burlington. We have an outstanding day-to-day relationship with BPD,” Morrison said.

She added that the additional patrols should not be viewed as a one-time effort.

“You never know — we might be doing this again. We never said this is a one and done.”

Morrison said the patrols will be staffed through voluntary overtime by state troopers, generally during midday, afternoon and evening hours. Most days of the week, Burlington residents can expect to see Vermont State Police cruisers parked downtown, with troopers working under the direction of the Burlington Police Department.

The commissioner said the arrangement is not a contract between the agencies but rather a cooperative law enforcement effort. Troopers will be paid with state funds. Burlington will not be sent the bill.