Editor’s note: This commentary is by Robyn Freedner-Maguire, of Burlington, who is a career issue-based campaign strategist on issues concerning mental health and a stay-at-home mom of three.
Burlington must take a quantum leap forward to heal the impacts of police brutality committed against BIPOC community members and people living with mental health issues. To prevent future incidents of police violence that devastate families and incite community distrust, we must decisively reimagine policing and move beyond our shameful history and attempts at incremental approaches. The aim should be transformational change, starting with citizen control of policing as highlighted in VTDigger’s article, “Burlington Councilor proposes overhaul of citizen oversight police commission.”
Burlington’s mayor, City Council, powerful human service agencies and local thought leaders have long known that racial and non-neurotypical biases have placed community members at risk for harassment, brutal treatment and even fatal interactions with our police. Additionally, for over a decade, there has been widespread community dialogue, multiple reports, investigations, media exposure and cries for change from community members. Still, we are stuck in the old ways and absent meaningful change.
While the protests in Burlington, led by the BIPOC community, calling for a new way of policing our community may seem extreme and difficult to understand to some, polite dialogue and incrementalism doesn’t suffice when your life or the life of someone you love is on the line. My own family — which includes biracial children with mental health issues due to early childhood trauma — lives in fear every day of police involvement. Importantly, our fear is based on lived experiences of police violence, not hypothetical conjecture. What I know from personal experience and from data collected for more than a decade by the city is that officers too often escalate and assault community members with impunity.
Councilor Perri Freeman has made an audacious proposal that meets the BIPOC community’s demands for meaningful accountability going forward. It removes firing and disciplinary power from the police chief and charges a civilian board with that power, as well as provides the board with investigatory and disciplinary oversight. Notably, it avoids a buildout of today’s broken system and instead, it boldly calls for civil control of police, centering community members and their rights.
This concept is not new. Civil rights and police reform advocates have been calling for civilian control of police for over 50 years. The ACLU of Vermont recently continued its longstanding advocacy for civilian control by providing Burlington’s City Council with seven recommendations to increase civilian oversight and control that include: investigatory powers, independent disciplinary authority, funding to support the work, diverse community membership, easy public access to file complaints, transparency, and broad policymaking authority. These recommendations would end the era of the police policing themselves, and allow our community to invest in our values and our future.
Freeman’s proposal and the ACLU’s recommendations are about ensuring accountability, not about disdain for the police. With greater police accountability, we can reduce police racially-motivated violence and bias against people with mental health issues, protecting our most vulnerable neighbors.
Freeman’s proposal is the bold step toward systemic change that Burlington needs. It is a transformational proposal that seeks to remedy past harms and will make Burlington safe for all. For the safety of my family, and so many other Burlingtonians, this proposal must become a reality. I urge Burlington’s community members to contact their city councilors to express support for Freeman’s proposal and call for a civilian control board of Burlington’s police department. I also urge local mental health and other human service agencies to engage in the process, contacting the council’s Charter Committee, to call for police accountability.
