Suspect has 15 convictions, 12 assault charges – and just wants to go to prison
Burlington police were unable to respond to a breaking and entering at 4 AM this morning because there were no officers available, a BPD press statement issued at noon today said.
At about 4 AM, BPD dispatchers received a report that a male broke into an empty apartment on the 100 Block on Pine Street.
The male was later identified as Mark Flanders, 43, of Burlington. Due to staffing shortage, there were no officers available at the time of the call.
Of the two officers assigned to the midnight patrol shift, one officer was with a woman arrested on a warrant who was taken to the hospital for a pre-existing condition, and the other was with a juvenile runaway from Bennington who had crashed a stolen vehicle in Burlington and was being evaluated for injuries from the crash while the officer waited for the Vermont Department of Children and Families to take custody of the juvenile.
A short time later, a BPD officer responded with UVM Police and located Flanders. Flanders was taken into custody, transported back to the PD and released with a flash cite. Flanders made statements that he wanted to go to the Northwest State Correctional Facility and that he would commit further crimes so he could go to jail.
A review of Flanders’ Vermont criminal history shows, he has 8 failures to appear, 18 misdemeanor charges with 15 convictions, and 12 assaultive crime charges with 8 convictions.