The St. Albans Police Department has a new permanent chief. On Monday, the City Council unanimously appointed former Vermont State Police Lt. Maurice Lamothe chief.
Lamothe, who retired from VSP in August 2019, has been serving as the interim chief since July 1.
During that time, Lamothe has made numerous changes not just to policies, but to practices, bringing a focus on community policing to a department that had come under fire for use of excessive force.
The city conducted a nationwide search for a new chief, receiving roughly 20 applications. A five-person panel interviewed multiple candidates before unanimously agreeing on Lamothe, according to city manager Dominic Cloud.
Recommending Lamothe to the council, Cloud said, “He has ably served in that position for that six months. He has inspired the confidence of the troops. He’s inspired my confidence.”
Mayor Tim Smith and three councilors said they had received positive feedback on Lamothe’s performance from city residents.
Lamothe is a city resident. Before joining the SAPD in September 2019, he spent four years as the station commander at VSP’s St. Albans barracks. In all, 15 of his 20 years with VSP were spent in St. Albans.
After telling the council he appreciated their confidence in him, Lamothe added, “This is not me doing this. This is the department doing this and the city doing this. I’m just steering the ship in the right direction.”
“This is a team effort,” he said. “It starts with the P.D., but it really comes full circle with the support of the community.”
Lamothe assumed leadership of the department at a challenging time.
Three separate use of force incidents came to light in 2019. Two were known by the department and investigated when they occurred. One officer departed during the course of the investigation. The other was found to have followed the SAPD’s policy on Taser use, which was then revised.
The officer involved in the third incident had successfully concealed it from the department. In response, then Chief Gary Taylor changed procedures so that all uses of force were not just reported, but investigated.
All of the officers involved in the three incidents ultimately left the department, with two facing simple assault charges.
Then in April an officer, Zachary Pigeon, was charged in the alleged violent assault of a woman who reported he had been trying to prevent her from revealing that he had sexually assaulted her when she was a child and he was a teenager. Pigeon is now facing multiple charges, including sexual assault.
Taylor accelerated a planned retirement, believing the department would benefit from new leadership. He departs at the end of this year. In June, he stepped back from running the department with Lamothe taking over.
At the same time, the city sought advice from Municipal Resources Inc., a New England-based consulting firm, on how it could improve hiring and training practices. That brief was expanded to include recommendations on policies and procedures in response to community pressure and outrage over the use of force incidents.
Lamothe said MRI’s proposals fit with many of his own ideas. New hiring and internal affairs policies have been adopted by the council, with others in the works, including response to resistance, which civilians call use of force.
“We’ve had deescalation training throughout the department,” Lamothe said, as well as training on working with people experiencing a mental health crisis.
SAPD was the first department in the state to have an embedded mental health counselor. That role is being expanded with a new person coming on board in January who will work full-time from the SAPD offices. The counselor is part of the department’s partnership with Northwest Counseling and Support Services.
The department is also meeting with Phoenix House, which provides treatment for substance abuse, often a factor in police calls. The plan is to have Melinda White, a well-known person in recovery circles within St. Albans, be available to meet with people who are struggling with addiction to alcohol or other drugs either at the scene or at the SAPD.
Meeting with a person immediately instead of simply providing a phone number to call “makes a big difference,” Lamothe said. “It’s very impactful for them.”
The meeting will have no impact on the criminal case, but is a way to make resources immediately available to those who need them, he explained.
Lamothe has also formed a Community Support Unit, which includes the department’s school resource officers. Currently, on days when they aren’t needed at the schools those officers are doing community outreach, primarily with people who are homeless.
The officers, dressed in civilian clothing, have been visiting hotels and motels where people are staying and encampments, as well as the county’s only soup kitchen, Martha’s Kitchen, and homeless shelter, Samaritan House. The goal is to “see if there is anything they can offer,” Lamothe said.
In many cases, the officers have found people may not be aware of all of the resources available in the community, according to Lamothe. “It’s just putting people in contact with other people.”
The department has had a guide to area resources printed for officers to hand out.
Asked what his plans for the department are over the next one to five years, Lamothe said, “We want to be more visible in the community, visible as a partner in the community.”
This summer officers walked foot patrols all over the city, not just downtown. It was a chance for officers to get to know residents. “We get info we wouldn’t normally get,” Lamothe said. “People talk to you if they know you.”
