Burlington police used force against Black individuals at a higher rate in 2020 than in years prior, according to new data the city released this week.
City officials presented the use-of-force report at a Tuesday police commission meeting. It includes new data on the Burlington Police Department’s use of force in 2019 and 2020, which shows a decrease in overall incidents, but widening racial disparities.
In total, the Burlington police used force against 149 people in the first 10 months of 2020. That figure is lower than in previous years, continuing an apparent downward trend in the number of use-of-force incidents — but arrests and calls for service have been far fewer in 2020, which officials attribute in part to the pandemic.
Use of force is defined as any time an officer points a weapon at an individual or uses physical force beyond handcuffing.
Of the 149 people who were subjected to force, more than 28% were Black.
Black residents comprise only 6% of Burlington’s population, according to last year’s Census Bureau estimates.
The disproportionality of that rate is higher than any recorded in the past eight years. Between 2017 and 2019, about 26% of subjects of police use of force each year were Black; in 2012, it was 18%.
White people made up 63% of use-of-force subjects in 2020. Fewer than 3% of incidents involved Hispanic or Asian individuals, and race was not reported in 7% of cases, lending some uncertainty to the numbers.
The data also show that Black people in Burlington are far more likely than white people to have a gun pointed at them by officers. In about 37% of incidents where an officer drew his gun this year, it was directed at a Black individual. White people, however, were slightly more likely to be injured as a result of force.
“These are astounding disparities,” Stephanie Seguino, an economics professor at UVM who sits on the police commission, said at Tuesday’s meeting. “I think they speak to why the community is feeling the way that it does today.”
Last summer, activists demanded that the city of Burlington restructure and reform the police force, pointing to disparities in policing and the harm law enforcement officers have inflicted on Black and other communities of color.
The city is currently embroiled in several lawsuits regarding BPD officers’ violent use of force. One seeks damages for the death of Douglas Kilburn, a white man who died from his injuries after he was punched by Officer Cory Campbell last year. Another lawsuit, which was dropped this summer, alleged that an officer kneed a Black man in the face, injuring his jaw.
In an email to VTDigger Wednesday, police Chief Jon Murad wrote that the report “shows some very good trends — for example, an overall diminishment of use of force in general,” but acknowledged that “we need to continue to focus” on racial disparities.
Murad said that “firearm display only” incidents accounted for some of the racial disparities. When such incidents are excluded, use of force against Black individuals matches the rate at which Black people are arrested in Burlington, he said, pointing to the 2019 data. (Because of the nature of the data made available in the 2020 report, which does not show whether firearm display was the only force used in any given incident, it is unclear whether this holds true in 2019 and 2020.)
The report says that firearm incidents “largely” only occur during the execution of search warrants or altercations with “violent felony” suspects. However, the 2020 data shows that officers also drew firearms when responding to trespassing and disturbance incidents.
“We can’t justify use-of-force disparities using arrest rate ratios,” Seguino said, noting that Black people in Burlington are also arrested at a disproportionately higher rate compared to white Burlingtonians.
Seguino was frustrated with the presentation of the report, which she said did not do enough to present the issue as a “critical problem.” “The police have the responsibility to, when they see numbers like this, sound the alarm, and dig in, and find out where the problem is,” she said.
Moving forward, data on police use-of-force incidents, arrests and traffic stops will be updated monthly on a new public data portal.
The data also shows other trends. Use-of-force incidents are concentrated in Burlington’s downtown corridor, near Church Street and popular bars, and generally occur late at night.
Use-of-force incidents in 2019 and 2020 involved physical force, about 57% of the time. In 28% of incidents, officers drew a firearm. Weapons like stun guns and pepper spray were used far less frequently, in 6% and 8% of incidents respectively.
Racial disparities in use-of-force incidents in 2020 were greater than those found in traffic stops and arrests. Still, Black people made up a disproportionate 19% of those arrested so far in 2020, and 12% of traffic stops, both higher proportions than previous years.
The police commission passed a motion Tuesday that directed Murad to present a strategy to reduce the use-of-force disparities at the commission’s February meeting.