BRANDON – A panel studying how law enforcement services are provided across the state heard from heads of small town police departments about the difficulty they face recruiting and retaining qualified people.
Middlebury Police Chief Tom Hanley said he carried a vacancy in his department for two years because of the hard time he had in finding someone to fill an officer’s position.
“All our candidates washed out because they couldn’t get past the background investigations,” Hanley said, adding, “You don’t want to just give people weapons and keys to the launch codes and send them out.”
Hanley was one of several local police chiefs to speak Tuesday afternoon at a hearing in Brandon hosted by the Vermont Senate Government Operations Committee.
The panel is holding a series of regional meetings around Vermont to hear what’s working and what’s not with how law enforcement services are provided and financed.
Hanley said part of the challenge of finding qualified people to become police officers is a “generational” issue, where it’s hard to find younger people just starting out in their career willing to work overnight, weekend and holiday shifts.
Doug Bailey, a member of the Brandon Selectboard, said retention of officers is a major issue, especially after a municipality invests a great deal of time and money in training only to see someone leave the department after a relatively short stay.
“We try to hire the right people,” Bailey said. “Then they get poached by bigger cities or state police.”
“We’ve heard this at every one of our meetings,” Sen. Alison Clarkson, D-Windsor, a committee member, replied.
She asked if Brandon had employment contracts with new officers requiring them to stay for a set number of years.
Brandon Police Chief Christopher Brickell said he didn’t believe such contracts were very effective, saying that other law enforcement agencies have found they are difficult to enforce.
He added, “If I have somebody working here that doesn’t want to work here any longer what’s the point in trying to hold them to a contract if I’m not going to get the kind of quality of work I want out of him for the community here.”
Bailey said the time it takes to fill a vacancy, from finding the right person to completing the needed training, creates difficulty on the other officers on the force.
“It isn’t just that there is a hole in our coverage,” he said. “It’s the added stress it puts on the other people. All of a sudden one is gone and then another one gets burnt out.”
In a perfect situation Brickell said he would like new officers to stay with the department for at least three years.
“The world doesn’t always go the way I’d like it to be,” the Brandon police chief added.
Sen. Jeanette White, D-Windham, chair of the Senate Government Operations Committee, said the structure of law enforcement services in Vermont has been a matter that has been studied for decades.
‘We decided what we should do is go on the road and hear what people’s concerns are,” she said in kicking off Tuesday’s meeting.
Brandon was the panel’s fourth stop, with four more planned next month. Then, on Nov. 7, the committee will come back together in a “working” session to decide what legislation, if any, they should draft to address the concerns they heard.
About two dozen people attended the session Tuesday in Brandon, including local enforcement officials as well as other state lawmakers.
In addition to the challenge of recruiting and retaining qualified officers, talk centered on the equitable access and financing of law enforcement services.
A report by the state auditor’s office earlier this year, White said, showed that Vermont spends $574 million a year on public safety.
Many communities without their own local departments either contract with county sheriff departments or rely exclusively on the Vermont State Police. That can often mean longer wait times, especially when calling for non-emergency matters, such as property crimes.
And residents in communities with local departments have to pay higher town taxes to fund that law enforcement service.
A couple people in the crowd suggested that everyone in the state pay the same tax or fee for law enforcement services, no matter where they lived. Others suggested more of a regional or countywide structure for law enforcement agencies.
White said one option brought up at an earlier session was to allow for volunteer police officers, similar to local fire department that rely on volunteers.
“I’m just throwing that out there,” she added.
That idea drew a cool response from the law enforcement officials in the room, who raised liability and training concerns.
It may also be, White said, that everyone is happy with how law enforcement services are provided and financed and no changes are warranted.
“If we hear there is no issue,” she said, “that will be the end of it.”
Other sessions the panel will be holding around the state are set for the following dates and locations:
Tuesday, Oct. 10
— 9 to 11:30 a.m., St. Johnsbury, Northeastern Vermont Development Association, 36 Eastern Ave., Suite 1.
— 1:30 to 4 p.m. Newport, Municipal Building, 222 Main St.
Tuesday, Oct. 24
— 9 to 11:30 a.m. St. Albans Town Hall, 579 Lake Road.
— 1:30 – 4 p.m. Waterbury State Office Complex, Fox Conference Center, Oak Room, 280 State Drive,
Tuesday, Nov. 7
— 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. “working session,” Montpelier Ethan Allen Room at State House.
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