The Burlington Police Commission delayed action on proposed changes to the city’s use of force policy Wednesday after residents called for the department to be defunded during the commission’s Tuesday evening meeting.
The commission suggested some language changes to Deputy Police Chief Jon Murad and planned to continue the discussion at a meeting set for June 16.
Mayor Miro Weinberger said during his Wednesday press briefing that he was taking the input from the public into account as he works on the budget for next year that he will present to the council Monday.
Weinberger said that while he would not be proposing a dismantling of the police department, he was considering further cuts based on the national conversations about policing and local input from the public
“Will there be cuts? Yes, Monday is when I’ll be able to share the full extent of those,” he said.
The new proposed use of force policy prioritizes de-escalation and requires officers to intervene when they witness a fellow officer use excessive force. Officers also have an affirmative duty to provide care to those in their custody under the updated policy.
Murad said that the new policy talks about de-escalation significantly more than the previous policy.
“This makes all those expectations explicit, and that is the ground on which a supervisor stands when determining responsibility for an act,” he said.
Around 250 Burlington residents spoke at Monday’s Board of Finance meeting in a nearly six-hour public forum, calling for a 30% decrease in uniformed officers, a removal of officers from schools and the firing of officers Jason Bellavance, Cory Campbell and Joe Corrow, who are all named in federal police brutality lawsuits filed by Black men last year.
Residents also are asking for increased funding for city programs aimed at aiding people of color as part of the demands compiled by the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance.
At Tuesday’s meeting during a forum of more than four hours, residents continued to echo the alliance’s calls.
Resident Melo Grant said she did not think officers had received appropriate punishment for excessive use of force.
“Actions have to have consequences, and they have not,” Grant said “I’m concerned about the continued lack of empathy, and the disconnect the department has with the community.”
Mayumi Cornell said as an African-American resident, it angered and frightened her to know that she can be, and had been, stopped because of her appearance.
“There is systematic racism from the top to the bottom, and we are disingenuous if we don’t think that it’s here,” she said.
Speakers also criticized a statement from the Burlington Police Officers’ Association, which said the calls to defund the department were “radical and dangerous.”
“I found yesterday’s Burlington Police Officers’ Association statement to be utterly unimpressive and frankly infuriating,” Mary, an Old North End resident who did not give her last name, said. She said defunding the police was key to reforming policing.
The city council established a special committee to review policing policies and procedures following the filing of the lawsuits last year. The committee recommended the adjustments to the use of force policy but did not recommend any major changes to the city’s community oversight model that some on the committee had called for.
Under the proposed new policy, force must be reasonable, proportional and used to accomplish law enforcement objectives. Officers are also required to warn individuals if they are about to use force.
Weinberger said Wednesday that he and Police Chief Jennifer Morrison did not support reopening past disciplinary procedures of officers, and said that he was seeking further understanding of the demand to remove officers from schools before determining his position.
“I think this may be one of the many situations where the Burlington content is a little different than the national context, and we should be deliberate before we decide to throw out a system that has been in place for a long time and that a lot of people have thought added value and is good for students,” he said.
The commission passed a statement condemning George Floyd’s killing by a Minneapolis Police Officer as “tragic and unjust” on Tuesday evening.
The statement further said that the police commission was committed to improving policing by updating the department’s use of force policy; developing programs to help police stop policing homelessness, mental health crises and substance use disorders and restoring trust by ensuring good policies are in place, among other steps.
“We mourn George Floyd’s death, just as we grieve for all those in our community and in communities across the country who have been mistreated,” the commission said. “We hope that our collective grief can be channeled in a productive way, to help create a more just and equitable world going forward.”
