By Michael Bielawski,
The Burlington Police Department and the public met at City Hall on Thursday afternoon to share information and solutions regarding how to curb increased crimes in The Queen City. Both the public and the understaffed department shared exasperation as well as hope that things could improve.
Much of the meeting was Police Chief Jon Murad going over the latest monthly report on crime statistics and the latest challenges with keeping the department adequately staffed.
“The men and women of this police department are there to serve this community, that’s why they took the job,” Murad said in response to one frustrated resident. A lady at the meeting claimed to have been physically threatened with a knife near the downtown area and yet she says there was not an in-person response.
Murad said if that’s the case, then it warrants some investigating.
“I’d love to look into that for you … we can try to figure out what happened there because that’s not right.”
Having fewer officers with more crimes to deal with has forced the department to adopt a “priority response” model that means in some cases crimes including hard drug use out in the open will not get an officer response. Despite generally sympathizing with the department’s challenges, some residents are nonetheless frustrated.
For example during late night hours when staffing is especially limited, Murad explained that he always needs at least two officers on hand for what’s considered a priority 1 call, meaning someone is likely in danger.
Murad explained some of how this sometimes juggling act works.
“They are waiting until an incident comes up that does need a two-officer priority 1 response and then they will respond. Now if the retail theft officer [who went out earlier that night] finishes her task before, well now we have three available again and then somebody can go to that larceny from a building [a non-priority 1 call].”
He explained that before the City Council voted to let go of about a third of the department via attrition back in June of 2020, they had in the high 90s for an officer count.
Rapidly officers started leaving, and now about four years later they are still stuck in the high 60s. That does not include officers can be unavailable for all different reasons such as injury, family, airport assignments, and more.
Public frustrated
A member of the public noted that having their names in the media can make them targets. One said that their apartment complex faces over $50 in repair and security modifications to account for local crime and vandalism. Numerous references were made to car thefts, retail thefts, and more.
The information shared by Murad in his monthly report highlights that gun crimes are down thanks to greater efforts to focus on that, but other crimes including car thefts and retail thefts continue to be up as well as drug activity.
Candidate for State Office in the crowd
Former State Senator John Rodgers who is running for the Lieutenant Governor’s office attended. Rodgers said, “I need to know more about what’s going on here. But I’d also like to ask you, is 87 enough if you could get to that?”
Murad said if they can get to the current City Council-approved cap of 87 officers again that will be a big step and they can continue from there.
He noted to VDC during the question/answer portion that the new Mayor’s Office of Emma Mulvaney-Stanak has been generally supportive of the police department and even engaging with officers.
Democratic City Councilor Joan Shannon and other city leaders could be observed in attendance, of which there were around 25 people and it was filmed by local TV in Burlington. The audience was generally supportive of this public meeting and some asked that the department try to do more in the future.
The author is a writer for the Vermont Daily Chronicle
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