This story was updated at 11 p.m.
BURLINGTON — Deputy Police Chief Jan Wright, named acting police chief Monday following the resignation of Brandon del Pozo, operated an anonymous Facebook account to make comments and engage citizens about department policy and practice.
Mayor Miro Weinberger, who announced Wright’s appointment as the acting chief at a noon press conference Monday, released a statement at 6:54 p.m. saying that Wright had been demoted back to being a deputy. Jon Murad, another deputy, will now serve as Burlington’s police chief, the mayor said.
Weinberger’s statement revealed that Wright had told him after Monday’s press conference that she had operated a Facebook page under the name “Lori Spicer,” which discussed the department.
“While Deputy Chief Wright’s situation may be very different than Chief del Pozo’s, given the circumstances the department is facing, I found the failure to raise this issue with me in the lead-up to today to constitute a lapse in judgement,” Weinberger said in the statement.
Del Pozo resigned Sunday evening after it was revealed he operated an anonymous Twitter account used to troll a critic, activist Charles Winkleman, on July 4.
Murad “confirmed explicitly” to City Attorney Eileen Blackwood and HR Director Deanna Paluba that he “has never engaged in anonymous social media posting.”
Weinberger said he would be asking an outside investigator to conduct a thorough review of the department’s social media activity and practices.
“Deputy Chief Wright’s disclosure raises the possibility that problematic social media use is far more widespread within the department than previously understood,” Weinberger said. “I am troubled that more than one senior department official engaged in such activity.”
Weinberger said he asked Blackwood and Paluba to review Wright’s posts in detail and report back to him if further action is necessary.
The mayor also said that he will make further amendments to the city’s draft social media policy to explicitly address issues of anonymous social media posting by senior officials.
“I will be seeking to update and formally adopt the City’s social media policy to better reflect our expectations for City employees’ and City leaders’ interactions with citizens on social media and online,” he said.
Wright’s “Lori Spicer” Facebook account was friends with del Pozo’s Facebook account and commented on posts on the Burlington Police Department and del Pozo’s personal page, on which he frequently discussed city police work.
After the body camera footage was released showing police tackling and pushing the Meli brothers and Mabior Jok last spring, Wright’s account called one commenter who questioned del Pozo a “one string banjo.”
On one post about bicycle safety, Wright wrote under the Spicer account, “How about making cyclists register their bikes like cars and be required to get insurance.” Other posts by the account complimented officers.
Wright also wrote one comment directed at Winkleman that Winkleman tweeted Monday. Wright wrote, “Just admit it. You are obsessed with Chief Del Pozo. You can’t get enough of him. He definitely lives rent free inside your head. Seek help.”
Winkleman questioned why Wright had not been fired or asked to resign for the account, during the public forum time of the City Council meeting Monday.
“Does that sound like a deputy who cares about mental health?” he said, after referring to that comment.
The council briefly discussed the del Pozo and Wright situations at the start of its meeting Monday evening. Weinberger reiterated much of what he said at the press conference about del Pozo earlier Monday and also shared the news about Wright’s account.
During the meeting’s public forum, a handful of residents called on Weinberger to resign for his handling of the situation.
Winkleman said he spent the last five months wondering if police were following him and if he was being monitored. He said only two councilors had reached out to him to see how he was feeling in the last week.
“You just continue to protect yourselves and your positions instead of listening to the people in this community who time and time again have said they are tired of being abused by the police in this town,” he said.
Winkleman said that he did not accept Weinberger’s apology and would not until the mayor resigns, until he apologizes to those hurt by police in the city during del Pozo’s tenure and to tenants of Bove’s, Handy’s and Bissonnete properties living in substandard housing, as Winkleman described.
Resident Vicki Garrison said she did not trust Weinberger.
“I think it’s privilege protecting privilege, and it’s the whole good ole boys club,” she said. “And that’s scary to me as a black being in this community.”
Rep. Brian Cina, P/D-Burlington, thanked the chief for his service but said that there had been a breach of public trust that left community members in pain.
Cina said the city should institute a universal social media policy and called for an elected police commission. The commission is currently appointed by the council.
“It would hold the police more directly responsible to the community,” Cina said.
Correction: An earlier version of this story included an imprecise account of a statement by Vicki Garrison. She said: “I think it’s privilege protecting privilege, and it’s the whole good ole boys club” — not “the whole little boys club.”
