Orange County Sheriff George Contois is hoping to have his officer certification reinstated as soon as Friday after it was suspended last week due to his failure to complete necessary training.
But the executive director of the Vermont Criminal Justice Council, which met Thursday to discuss Contois’s certification suspension, said reinstatement will depend on a review of relevant records.
Contois‘ certification was suspended Friday for not completing two of the four hours of use-of-force training required by the Vermont Police Academy, as was first reported by the Rutland Herald.
He was suspended due to “the safety risk, to yourself and the public, caused by your non-compliance,” the council’s executive director, Heather Simons, wrote in a letter to Contois.
Contois told VTDigger that he received a warning about his incomplete training hours several weeks prior but did not expect the suspension to move through so quickly, “because everything in state government is snail mail.” He requested a waiver for the missing hours, which was denied last week.
At a special meeting Thursday morning, the council presented Contois with the option of completing his missing training hours and seeing his suspension lifted, Contois said.
Contois, who is less than six months into his tenure as sheriff, completed the missing two hours of mandatory training in Montpelier after the meeting on Thursday. He said he expected to see his officer certification reinstated within 24 hours.
Simons said that lifting the suspension would depend on a thorough review of Contois’ training records. A waiver subcommittee found last week that Contois was missing documentation for other training requirements, which could factor into in the council’s deliberations.
The temporary suspension follows a series of blows to the Orange County Police Department, which has been rattled by a rocky transition of leadership, staffing shortages and a recently failed audit of the department’s finances which auditors attributed to haphazard bookkeeping under the previous sheriff.
Contois said he was not embarrassed about the suspension, contending that it’s not unusual for officers to miss some courses.
“The public doesn’t know that and thinks the worst,” he said. “It happens.”
But Simons said training requirements are not something to be taken lightly, and this is the first time during her two-year tenure on the council that a sheriff has come up short.
“The public needs to know that regardless of rank, or level of certification, that the people who are serving in their communities are competent,” she said. “And that is largely measured by training.”
The council also discussed the suspension of officer certification for Hubbardton Constable Floyd Morey, who failed to complete firearm training. Morey told the council that part of his trigger finger had been amputated and requested a waiver for the training, which was denied, The Times Argus reported.
It remains unclear how and whether Morey will be able to retain his position.
Ethan Weinstein contributed reporting.
Clarification: This story was edited after publication to make clear that Contois’ officer certification was suspended, not the sheriff himself.
