A University of Vermont study of police departments across the state — and the types of incidents they most commonly handle — reveals some trends. It also shows how difficult it is to obtain the information from law enforcement agencies.
UVM’s Center for Research surveyed local police departments across the state for the study. Only 11 of the 56 departments responded to requests for information from the center.
Different departments or even officers may also categorize incidents in different ways.
“There is a large amount of officer choice in what goes into each category, according to the police officers we spoke with, which may make it difficult to compare across departments,” according to a summary of the study.
Some categories “also require a certain subjectivity on the part of the public, for example ‘suspicious person,’” the summary added.
That’s not the only challenge.
“It was also difficult to collect this data, as more than 40 departments were asked for the information, often multiple times,” the study summary stated. “Yet the data may be essential to inform the public about what a police department does.”
The 11 departments providing information to the researchers: Colchester, Hartford, Hinesburg, Northfield, Rutland City, Rutland Town, Shelburne, South Burlington, Williston, Wilmington and Woodstock.
Information was requested only from local departments, not county sheriff’s departments or Vermont State Police. Also, information is not included from Burlington, which has the largest local force by far. That may have skewed results.
“They’re a totally different kettle of fish,” Richard Watts, the research center’s director, said of the Burlington Police Department. “We really wanted to focus on the local departments.”
The study looked at the most common type of incidents police departments submitted to law enforcement computer reporting systems over three years: 2018, 2019 — the two years before the pandemic — and 2020, a year mostly consumed by it.
“There may be incidents that make less sense for armed officers than other incidents, and we’re in this big conversation about the role of policing in America,” Watts said of the reasoning behind the study. “We’re hoping to provide data that might inform those conversations.”
According to the study, from 2018 to 2020, the “citizen assist” category made up the largest percentage of the 15 most common incidents reported, averaging 16% across the 11 police departments.
A citizen assist generally involves a citizen asking a police officer for help, according to the study.
Vandalism made up the smallest percentage of the 15 most common incidents, averaging 2.14% across the 11 police agencies.
The study also found a number of reported incidents that might not require the response of a police officer. For example, “animal problem” accounted for more than 6% of the total incidents, while lost and found property made 3.5%
The study revealed some of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Motor vehicle incidents, including accidents with damage requiring a report to the state Department of Motor Vehicles, increased from 2018 to 2019, and then decreased 11% in 2020, according to figures provided by the departments.
“Certainly anecdotally there were fewer cars on the road, especially early during the pandemic,” Rutland City Police Chief Brian Kilkullen said. “For a monthlong period, it was mostly a ghost town.”
Colchester Police Chief Brian Allen agreed with Kilcullen that there were certainly fewer vehicles on the road during the first weeks after the pandemic hit Vermont in March 2020.
Particularly during the early stages of the pandemic, traffic enforcement stops also slowed, as officers tried to limit contact with the public and pulled people over for only the most serious safety-related infractions, Allen said.
Noise complaints were a greater percentage of complaints in 2020, mainly because other categories of incidents fell so much during the pandemic.
Another challenge in analyzing the data, Watts said, is that several town departments had entered codes into the computer reporting system for “not classified” incidents. Most town departments had fewer than 100 of those each year, though a couple listed many more. Watts said it was impossible to tell what incidents the police were responding to in those instances.
