[A] Burlington teenager who says he was aggressively frisked by a U.S. Secret Service agent on St. Paul Street is disappointed by the Burlington Police Department’s response to the incident. Police Chief Brandon del Pozo says officers’ hands were tied in dealing with the federal agency.
Phin Brown, a 16-year-old Burlington High School senior, posted a video on Facebook Monday explaining his treatment by the agents, which he believes was racially motivated. The video had more than 9,000 views as of Wednesday afternoon.
He said around 5:20 p.m. Monday, he left his house to get into a friend’s car. He said he was approached by two federal agents, a white male and a female he believed to be of Asian descent. He said the man approached him, pushed him against the vehicle, and frisked him.
“I mentioned the fact he was a white man and he came up to me,” Brown said. “When you’re in that situation and you come up to a person of color, it’s very scary, I mean, it’s intimidating.”
Brown said four Burlington police officers who responded to the scene told Brown that it was legal for the agents to frisk him. One of the officers told Brown, “Don’t make this about race, because it’s not about race,” Brown said.
Brown said he felt let down by the Burlington police response and that he had tried to do all the right things. He said he feels that if he were white, the situation would have been different.
“You can’t tell me what is and isn’t about race, one, the situation may not have been specifically about race, but he definitely identified me as a perpetrator due to who I am,” Brown said.
“I feel like the police are supposed to make you feel safe, and they’re supposed to make you feel like if you call them, they will be there to support you, instead of making the situation about, ‘Oh, you’re lying,’” he said.
Del Pozo said he didn’t know what the Secret Service’s intent was in questioning Brown, but the agents said Brown became of interest to them when they saw him leave and enter the house. The agents said they identified themselves to Brown and his behavior toward them required them to frisk him, del Pozo said.
“I don’t have the authority or role of analyzing or intervening or opinion-ing on Secret Service operations,” del Pozo said. “I urge people to ask the Secret Service for an account of what they’ve done and reconcile it with the concerns of the citizen.”
The man who answered a call to the Secret Service’s Burlington office declined to give his name. He said the Secret Service did not comment on ongoing investigations and had no comment on the situation. Along with the protection responsibility the agency is known for, the Secret Service also investigates financial and electronic crimes.
“It doesn’t help that they’re not commenting,” del Pozo said.
Del Pozo said his officers went to the scene and determined that the agents were actually government agents, that they were acting in their official duties and it was not a life-threatening situation. He said there is nothing else the BPD could have — or should have — done.
“Anything else is interference,” he said.
Burlington police responded quickly to the address, which had been the site of a March 3 call in which three armed men were attempting forced entry, del Pozo said. In that instance, the responding officers were told that there was no longer a danger and their assistance was no longer needed, del Pozo said.
The Burlington officers responded to Brown’s call Monday that he had been illegally frisked by two suspects who were attempting to enter his home, del Pozo said.
The officers were asked to mediate a dispute between a citizen and federal officers on the Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure and racial equity, del Pozo said.
“They’re not trained to do that, they’re not authorized to do that, it’s not their role … and it’s an extraordinarily difficult thing to do,” del Pozo said.
Del Pozo said that the officer’s statement to Brown that the situation wasn’t about race wasn’t a final conclusion on whether race played a role on the situation. He said the officer was trying to address Brown’s assertions.
“We definitely want officers to understand the perspective of someone in Phin Brown’s shoes and to be compassionate and not be too quick to make pronouncements,” he said.
Del Pozo said the statement was a cause for concern, and that the department would review the body camera footage of the incident. This could lead to informal conversations with the officers involved about being more courteous, depending on what the footage reveals.
“If we see a shortcoming we’ll address it, but we don’t want to say, ‘These are the words you can and can’t say in certain situations,’” he said.
In a press release about the incident Del Pozo said that Brown had grown up in an “extremely challenging environment.” Some officers had known him since he was a toddler and have tried to look out for him and his best interests, Del Pozo said. Officers are continuing to meet with him and family members to discuss the department’s response.
Del Pozo said some members of Brown’s family had lengthy criminal histories, and officers who have known Brown stressed that he is a great kid with a great future and no negative history with the police whatsoever.
“Officers have known this young man for so long and were so happy to see him succeed and were concerned when he needed help we appeared to be dismissive and not take him seriously,” he said. “These same officers felt that he could have contacted them to sort this out, rather than turning it to a conflagration, especially since the main focus seems to be where this all started, with the Secret Service.”
Del Pozo said that Brown’s questions and concerns about the interaction with the Secret Service were valid.
“He had a really tense encounter with the Secret Service, but it’s not the role of the Burlington police to adjudicate it,” del Pozo said.
