Last month, amid heightened national scrutiny of police budgets, VTDigger published new data from the University of Vermont showing how much towns in the state spent on law enforcement.
Now, the researchers from UVM’s Center for Research on Vermont have expanded their database, bringing the new total to $96 million spent on policing in fiscal year 2020 in about 175 towns.
Law enforcement funding has been under scrutiny nationwide as “defund the police” has become a rallying cry at racial justice and police brutality protests. Discussions about police budgets have emerged in several Vermont communities. Burlington officials voted to reduce police staffing levels by 30% through attrition.
While some big towns shell out millions each year to provide patrols, traffic safety and more, others spent less than $1,000 due to their small size and contracts with sheriff and state police departments that lower costs.
Those costs are rising; the researchers, a team of students at the Legislative Internship Center led by UVM professor Richard Watts, found that police budgets rose about 3.8% between 2019 and 2020. On average, about 15% of town budgets went to policing, or about $175 per person in Vermont.
Check out the database below and visit our original story for more on what the data shows and what it means for the debate on defunding the police.
Students manually compiled police budgets from annual town reports, but at times it wasn’t always clear how much was spent and where. You can click on a town’s name to read their report and find more details about how the money was spent.
Keep in mind that per capita expenses are based on a town’s population — which does not include tourists, workers and everyday visitors from outside the town.
