Tuesday nights the worst in 2021

Use-of-force incidents involving Vermont State Police have declined every year since 2018, according to VSP data released yesterday. 

The interactive data shows that last year, Tuesday, 8-11 pm was the ‘time slot’ with the most use-of-force incidents – 78% of which involved alcohol. 72% involved mental health issues. 

Of the 169 use-of-force incidents recorded by VSP in 2021, 10 involved black people – seven of whom were men. 

Firearms were pointed at the subjects 31 times, pepper spray used three times, deadly force and ‘impact projectiles’ (bean bags) both twice. The overwhelmingly choice was physical restrain – 131 times. 

Every year, the VSP releases an analysis of use-of-force incidents “to fully illuminate the scope of operations, enhance transparency, and provide operational and public safety data to Vermonters with increasing scope and volume,” the VSP statement said. “While uncommon — force is used in about 0.3% of incidents that VSP responds to annually — these are important events to report on.”

Some notes on the information:

A use of force incident can involve multiple troopers and one subject, or in rare incidents multiple subjects and one trooper.

An “incident” represents a single location at a single time, involving one or more troopers and one or more subjects.

The dashboards are interactive. Click on a day of week, force type, etc., for additional information.

The dashboards can be expanded to full screen. Click the arrows on the bottom right of each dashboard.

Data for the previous year typically will be released in the summer of the following year.

This page was updated most recently on May 12, 2022.