The town of Bennington is seeking the inaugural members of a citizens group that will have some oversight of the local police department.
The town Selectboard officially established the Community Policing Advisory Review Board this month, two years after consultants recommended it as a way to build residents’ trust in Bennington police.
The board’s tasks include analyzing aggregated, anonymous complaints against Bennington police to identify patterns, as well as recommending additional training for officers, such as in the realms of deescalating incidents and fair and impartial policing. The board would also note areas of success for local police.
The board’s five to seven members are expected to be seated at the beginning of June, then undergo training, said selectboard Chair Jeannie Jenkins.
Bennington Police Chief Paul Doucette, in his first public comments since the board was established, said he looks forward to collaborating with the board to show the police department’s work and receive feedback that will help improve the law enforcement agency.
“I think it’s going to give the community an opportunity to see all the wonderful work that we do here as a police department,” Doucette said in an interview. “At the same time, officers do make mistakes. And I think it’s going to give the community an opportunity to learn and grow with the Bennington Police Department, if mistakes are made.”
Until the town’s attorney flagged conflicts with state law in March, a task force assigned to flesh out the advisory review board’s role envisioned greater oversight powers — especially about complaints against Bennington police.
Among them: that the board could see individual complaints, the police chief should provide the board with updates on his investigation, and the board should review the police chief’s findings before saying whether it agrees with the findings.
During the board’s review, it could ask to see evidence related to the complaint, such as police body camera footage and witness interviews.
However, under state law, those are out of reach for the review board.
Doucette said he supported the task force’s recommendations.
“I had no problems showing the reports,” he said. “I have supported a community police advisory review board from the initial inception.”
Bennington officials have since been in touch with state legislators to ask about the best way a citizens board could be given authority to review internal police investigations. They understand this could be done either through a change in Bennington’s town charter or an amendment in the relevant state law.
Jenkins, for one, prefers a change in state law, since it involves a less labor-intensive process than a charter change. It would also save other towns across Vermont time and effort should they wish to set up a policing advisory review board of their own.
“Quite frankly, it seems like it would be more straightforward for the Legislature just to say, town review boards are possible,” she said in an interview.
Meanwhile, the town is accepting letters of interest from Bennington residents about volunteering on the board. Members will be appointed to either two- or three-year terms. The deadline for applications is 4:30 p.m. on May 16.
The ACLU of Vermont and the Rutland Area NAACP, in a letter to the Bennington Selectboard last year, said the forthcoming advisory review board should include the local NAACP, Black Bennington residents and other groups that are most impacted by local policing activities. It also suggested including people who are homeless and those with low incomes.
“Without a membership that includes the most impacted,” the ACLU and Rutland NAACP said, “(the group) will lack legitimacy and will not contribute to the movement for badly needed oversight and accountability in Bennington.”
Establishing the advisory review board is part of ongoing efforts to reform the Bennington Police Department. Those efforts started after the agency was criticized for not properly handling the harassment of then-state Rep. Kiah Morris around 2016.
The town of Bennington hired the International Association of Chiefs of Police in 2019 to perform a comprehensive review of the police department’s policies and its relationship with the community.The association made several recommendations in a report the following year, including that Bennington consider establishing a community advisory board.
