BURLINGTON — On Sept. 25, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger announced a “new path forward” for policing in the city. Standing with acting police Chief Jon Murad, he appointed Kyle Dodson, president of the Greater Burlington YMCA, to a new, temporary position: the director of “police transformation.”
In the days since, key racial justice groups in Burlington have raised concerns about the new reforms.
On Sept. 28, the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance issued a statement saying the mayor’s actions “set dangerous precedents.” Among other things, the alliance wrote, Weinberger had worked with the police department to plan the reforms, at the exclusion of protesters, the City Council, and other advocacy groups.
“The only stakeholder involved in this decision was the police department,” Mark Hughes, the director of Justice For All and a member of the alliance’s leadership team, told VTDigger. “It just wasn’t done collaboratively.” As a result, he said, the actions “kneecap” ongoing work on police reforms in the city.
In the spotlight now is Dodson, who is taking a six-month leave from the YMCA to direct the city’s reform efforts. Dodson will manage an assessment of the Burlington Police Department, mandated in a June City Council resolution. He will also oversee ongoing deliberations by the Police Commission, the Charter Change Committee, and other city bodies on Burlington policing.
But primarily, Dodson told VTDigger, he wants to bring new people to the negotiating table.
Hughes and the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance, though, worry that the mayor’s transformation plans excluded them and others from the outset.
Weinberger’s “path forward” included five new actions on policing, along with Dodson’s appointment. The first is an executive order requiring that all police use-of-force incidents that injure an individual or “raise significant public concern” come before the mayor for review.
The total discretion that the Burlington Police Department has over disciplinary decisions has come under renewed scrutiny in recent months, as protesters called for the termination of three officers whose use-of-force cases had already been adjudicated. Though the city announced on Sept. 22 that one of the officers would be departing via a $300,000 severance agreement, the other two remain.
The Burlington Police Commission has long debated its own role in overseeing discipline. The commission and the City Council have, for years, floated the idea of a charter change to give the seven-member volunteer board authority beyond its current, limited advisory powers, to no avail. In August, however, the commission adopted a new, detailed policy, stating it will review all allegations of misconduct against Burlington Police Department employees and, where appropriate, recommend disciplinary action.
The Racial Justice Alliance says Weinberger’s executive order on police discipline undercuts the commission’s new policy. His order specifically mandates that the mayor will give a final recommendation of disciplinary action to the police chief “before reviewing the case with the Police Commission.”
The Police Commission, Hughes said, “doesn’t have a tremendous amount of power. But what [the executive order] does is further limit that power.” (Hughes recently resigned from the police commission in protest because of its ineffectiveness.)
Weinberger told VTDigger the misconduct policy is needed. The city’s Charter Change Committee is considering changes that would provide independent oversight of police discipline, which the mayor says he is “likely to support.”
But, he said, “we are many months, at best, away from any of those potential charter changes.” In the meantime, he said, the executive order will bring more immediate accountability.
The Racial Justice Alliance raised similar concerns about Weinberger’s other actions. A request for the city attorney to review the city’s contract with the police union, the group said, excludes outside input. A new policy on releasing body camera footage was similarly “pre-prepared” by the deputy chief and the mayor.
Other activists are still demanding the structural changes alluded to in the June City Council resolution and say the new reforms fall short.
“The actual reality on the streets doesn’t really radically change” through the kinds of oversight reforms proposed by the mayor, said Brian Waters, an organizer with BTV Copwatch, a group that films law enforcement. The Battery Park protesters, though they have ended their encampment, wrote in a statement that they will continue to demonstrate “until we create a new public safety apparatus that serves all people.”
Weinberger said the urgency of protesters’ demands this summer informed his decisions. “I want to drive these processes to resolution,” he said. “Some of these discussions have been going on unresolved for many years.”
Dodson’s role as “transformation” director, he said, would help “ensure that.”
‘A trusted broker’
Kyle Dodson’s appointment was unexpected. Weinberger hired him under mayoral authority, and made the announcement only afterward. Dodson has given the mayor “counsel” for years, he said, and served on the Burlington School Board and worked on equity and engagement at Champlain College before leading the YMCA.
Dodson faces a steep challenge in aiding the mayor’s goal of forging a “new consensus” on policing in Burlington. But, he said, “I think I’m a trusted broker. And I think I have the ability to bring people together in ways that aren’t happening now.” His position as a prominent Black leader in the city, he said, was a strength.
But doubts about the reforms, Dodson said, are “absolutely warranted.”
“Everywhere in the country, quite frankly, we’ve come up short. There’s no place, I would argue, that we have fully and comprehensively addressed the horrors of our past in terms of our treatment of BIPOC people. In that, there’s opportunity,” he said.
“For the person that says, ‘How do you know it’s going to work?’ I don’t. Should we sit on our hands, or should we try something?”
In the coming months, the mayor’s path forward will become more clear; Dodson’s first day on the job was just last week. For Hughes, though, the reform efforts will be successful only if they look beyond policing to economic and cultural solutions — another critique leveled in the Racial Justice Alliance statement.
“It’s not enough to get one’s knee off another person’s neck,” Hughes said. “You also have to provide them an opportunity to thrive.”
