Editor’s note: The Flynn Center for the Performing Arts announced Thursday, February 23, that this event is postponed due to weather.
The Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in Burlington is hosting a discussion Thursday about policing and public safety.
The event, an unusual shift for the performing arts center, comes as the issue of public safety in Burlington is at the forefront of community discussion.
The event emerged from discussions about policing and public safety within the Flynn’s organization, according to Kevin Sweeney, director of marketing.
“We felt some people who really studied it, and bringing them into Burlington and giving them an opportunity to speak, might just further discussion on a more productive route,” Sweeney said.
The panel, titled Collaborating Public Safety, is set to begin at 7 p.m. Thursday at the downtown Burlington theater. Admission is free.
Panelists Tracey L. Meares and Sean Smoot, as well as moderator Deborah Spence, all served on President Barack Obama’s Task Force on Community Policing, according to the Flynn’s press release on the event.
President Obama formed the task force in 2014, and its report on national public safety has become influential in discussions and improvements to community safety throughout the country.
Jay Wahl, executive director at the Flynn, reached out to national experts on policing and public safety to bring their voices to Burlington specifically, according to Sweeney.
The panel comes at a pivotal time for policing in Burlington, as public safety has become an increasing concern within the community, and a petition calling for changes in policing and community safety — in particular, a proposed community control board for the police department — will be considered by the city’s voters on the Town Meeting Day ballot. Forming a community control board would require changing the city charter.
Supporters of the proposal describe it as a way to reinstate trust in the city’s police force. Progressives on the city council support the community control board; other city councilors and Mayor Miro Wienberger do not.
As Burlington prepares to vote on the issue, the Flynn hopes to provide advice and expertise through the panel discussion. In addition to their positions with President Obama’s 2014 task force, Meares is a professor at Yale Law School, Smoot is director of the Police Benevolent & Protective Association as well as the Police Benevolent Labor Committee in Illinois, and Spence is an assistant director at the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, according to the Flynn’s press release.
“Currently, many Vermonters are asking questions about effective methods and programs that address how best to work with municipalities and police departments to make our communities safe, supportive, and welcoming to all,” Wahl said in an email. “We are grateful to present this important event and continue this dialog at the Flynn.”
While admission to the event is free, the Flynn’s website provides an option to register in advance.