The Burlington Police Department may soon be unable to staff its overnight shift, due to dwindling numbers of officers in the force that can’t be replaced.
In June, the Burlington City Council passed a racial justice resolution that reduced the department’s staffing levels by 30%, by attrition through retirements or resignations. It placed a cap of 74 officers on the then 91-officer department in an effort to reallocate these savings toward racial justice initiatives.
Acting Police Chief Jon Murad said at a Friday press conference that the department is losing more and more officers. As of today, the force has 81 sworn officers on duty but expects to drop in numbers again to 79, come January.
He said some officers are beginning military deployments or are being hired by other agencies. He said that five of the officers who resigned most recently referenced the city council resolution as one of their reasons for doing so. Four of those officers took other public safety jobs, he said.
Additionally, the department has 12 officers who will become eligible for retirement by September 2021. He said if the force is reduced to 76 officers, BPD will not be able to safely or effectively respond to calls that occur between 3 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. This is currently the time period when the least number of calls come to the department.
“The midnight shift is not something we are thinking about ending lightly,” Murad said. “This is a serious move. It is predicated on the idea that if we only have enough staffing for one or two officers, they cannot conduct safe, proactive patrol on their own.”
The racial justice resolution that was passed in June directed a joint committee made up of the council’s Public Safety Committee and Police Commission to conduct an assessment of the BPD and collect community input about how the department would be reenvisioned. Murad said the assessment has not yet begun, which is why he felt the need to put forward a plan of his own to address the department’s staffing stresses.
Under his plan, the department would hire community service officers and community service liaisons. These officers and liaisons would be civilian employees and would not be armed, in an effort to respond to the community’s call for more unarmed officials in the department, Murad said.
The officers would respond to lower level needs like fingerprinting, reports of lost or recovered property, traffic control and parking enforcement. The liaisons would address “chronic issues” around houselessness, mental health and substance use disorders. In Murad’s vision, which he said he’s presented to the mayor’s office, 12 officers and six liaisons would be hired.
Kyle Dodson, who was recently hired by Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger to serve as the city’s director of police transformation for the next six months, said he thinks that the department needs more expert input on how to move forward with these staffing issues, which the assessment of the department could provide. “We’ve been putting the cart before the horse,” Dodson said.
Dodson said he thinks there may be a “breakdown” in understanding about how to rid racism and bias from a police force. “I think also there’s a sense that … somehow having a large number of police is related to the kind of racism and bias that we see around the country,” Dodson said.
He said the factors of poverty and unstable housing or job security contribute to the police response the community needs. He said a reduction should come with “thoughtfulness.”
“If how police interact with a community as it relates to race is the issue, I’m not sure how reducing can address that,” he said. “What it can create is a beleaguered, resentful, bitter set of professionals who don’t feel supported.”
City Councilor Zoraya Hightower, P-Ward 1, who chairs the Public Safety and Police Commission joint committee, said it’s a “sham” to say that the responsibility to create short-term solutions to fortify the current levels of police staffing should fall only on her committee.
She said she’s been vocal about the fact that her 10-person committee isn’t equipped to move forward on the assessment at a swift pace and that the process would take at least a year to complete. She said her committee doesn’t have any unilateral hiring power, which is why she thinks the mayor should be moving faster with alternative short-term proposals to staff the police department.
The mayor proposed a plan in September to hire two new social workers for the police force, but since then, Hightower said, she doesn’t think Weinberger has done enough beyond hiring Dodson.
“Then it just, like, halted. And he instead hired Kyle Dodson who hasn’t, as far as I can see, done anything to transform the police,” Hightower said. “So now we’re instead paying $75,000 for six months for someone who isn’t alleviating any of the burden on the police department and doesn’t seem to have any ideas in terms of alternatives.”
In a statement emailed to VTDigger, Weinberger pushed back on Hightower’s criticisms.
“That assertion from Councilor Hightower is an attempt to shirk responsibility for the position that she and her Progressive City Council colleagues have put the City in,” Weinberger wrote.
“My budget resolution in June included a compromise provision that would have lowered the cap on sworn officers to 90 and ensured that we did not drop below the 80 sworn officers that would trigger emergency staffing. Councilor Hightower led the effort to strip that compromise provision out of the budget resolution, and it is that action that has put us where we are today,” he added.
“As part of Chief Murad’s presentation today, he proposed a new solution from the Administration,” he wrote, “and I hope that the City Council will be more receptive to a proposed solution this time.”
