Gov. Phil Scott’s lifting of Covid-19 restrictions in Vermont is leading to changes for police agencies around the state, from stepped up traffic enforcement to more in-person responses to calls for service.
Police departments in Vermont at the start of the coronavirus outbreak in March 2020 had implemented many procedures to help protect officers and the public from spreading Covid-19.
Vermont’s largest law enforcement agency -— the state police — has announced that it would be returning to “fully normal operations” following Scott’s announcement last week that more than 80% of eligible Vermonters have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
“For the Vermont State Police, like for every state agency, responding to Covid represented an unprecedented challenge,” said Adam Silverman, a state police spokesperson. “No one alive has ever seen anything like this before.”
State police have 300 sworn personnel across its Field Force, Criminal and Support Services divisions.
Among some of the procedures that state police had in place for the past several months included mask-wearing for troopers and working to maintain social distance when responding to calls.
In certain non-emergency situations — such as minor motor-vehicle crashes, vandalism and thefts — reports were taken over the phone rather than through an in-person response, according to Silverman.
Troopers also curtailed travel and training.
“There was a long period of time during the real heart of the Covid emergency when there was no out-of-state travel or training whatsoever,” Silverman said.
Traffic enforcement had changed during the pandemic to curb person-to-person contact, focusing on motor vehicle situations representing the greatest threat to public safety. Those situations included impaired operation of a motor vehicle, reckless driving and driving “substantially” over the speed limit, according to Silverman.
Montpelier Police Chief Brian Peete said one of the biggest changes in his department also relates to traffic enforcement.
“We’ve been getting a lot of community concerns,” he said, ranging from complaints about speeders to places in the city where people are running through stop signs. “We are going to do a lot more proactive enforcement than we have been [doing] during Covid.”
Barre City Police Chief Tim Bombardier said his department has returned to normal operations.
“We’ve been pretty much a modified business as unusual until last week, and now we’re back to square one,” he said.
He said when the pandemic was “hot” there was less “proactive” enforcement of motor vehicle laws. Also, he said, officers took more reports over the phone. That has since changed, and he encourages reports to be taken in person.
“The city is 4 square miles. Get in your car and go talk to people and meet with them, that’s what we’re going to go back to,” he said.
“That’s not to say we won’t take a report over the phone,” the police chief said, “but it’s much nicer and you get a better story when you meet people and you have that interaction.”
And those interactions, he said, are better without masks in the way.
“I don’t think you get as good an interaction with a mask on,” Bombardier said. “I would rather talk to somebody without a mask on, so I can see their faces, so I can judge what they’re saying. I think a lot of people feel that way.”
He added, “It’s good to be back to normal.”
