Burlington City Council members are divided over whether another vote on raising the police department’s staffing cap is the right move, in light of recent crime in the city.
The citizen oversight Police Commission voted unanimously Monday to urge the city council to raise the staffing cap from 74 officers to 82. The resolution was proposed by Commissioner Stephanie Seguino, who noted that the department’s staffing levels are expected to fall to about 70 officers by this fall.
While some councilors may disagree that another vote is necessary, two members — Joan Shannon, D-South District, and Mark Barlow, I-North District — have filed a resolution to raise the officer cap. The council meets Monday night.
Last summer, the city council voted to cut the department’s staffing levels by 30% through attrition, in an effort to reallocate funding toward racial justice initiatives and other community resources. A cap of 74 officers was imposed, a limit that Acting Police Chief Jon Murad has pushed back on over the past year.
In December, Murad asked the council to raise the cap from 74 to 84. In February, the council declined to do so, but approved funding for up to 13 new positions for unarmed community service officers and liaisons.
Since then, Murad has made known to the community that, because of low staffing, the police department has had to adopt a priority response plan, which directs officers to respond first to calls with the highest degree of urgency. Others will be followed up on when officers become available.
Monday night’s police commission vote, which was first reported by Seven Days, was the second time this year the body had voted to raise the officer ceiling.
Seguino told VTDigger she did not introduce the resolution because of the recent uptick in incidents in the past few weeks. “An uptick over one weekend is not a trend,” Seguino said.
Burlington has had a number of violent crimes over the past few weeks. Most recently, a man allegedly stabbed another on Monday in City Hall Park. A Sunday shooting left holes in a Lake Street building. On Saturday, a shootout occurred between two men at Simon’s Mobil.
The Burlington Business Association has also launched a safety escort program for downtown employees who don’t feel safe walking to their cars at night after a shift.
Seguino said she introduced the resolution because office attrition has occurred much faster than anticipated and staffing has fallen below the current 74-officer cap. It can take up to a year to hire and train new officers, and raising the cap now will give the police department time to plan, Seguino said.
She also said the city is still waiting for a much anticipated report that’s expected to outline the level of resources the police department needs to operate successfully. The report, being produced by CNA Consulting, was expected to be released in June but has been delayed until fall.
City Council President Max Tracy, P-Ward 2, said he wants to see the CNA report before voting on whether to raise the officer cap, although he wouldn’t block city council consideration of a resolution. He said he thinks the city should put more effort into hiring community service officers and liaisons to bring more capacity to the police department. The council authorized those hires in February.
The police commission’s resolution also asks that the council act “immediately” to approve the hiring of two community service liaisons at the Community Justice Center. In an email to VTDigger, Murad said the department has provided offer letters to two community service officers. They still need final approval from the deputy chiefs. Five out of 30 applicants made it to the final rounds of consideration after preliminary vetting.
If the final two applicants are confirmed, Murad said they will undergo one month of basic training and then 10 weeks of field training. He added that he has also previously shared with city councilors that it would take about 7 1/2 months to hire and train a CSO.
Tracy said he’s concerned anytime gun violence takes place in the city. But he doesn’t think crime is rising in the city across the board. He said he’s also not convinced that adding officers would address the rise in incidents.
Councilor Jane Stromberg, P-Ward 8, said she has doubts that the recent incidents have anything to do with current police staffing levels. The increase concerns her, but she said many different contexts could be driving the current issues. She wants to see the community service officers deployed.
Stromberg said she supports a council discussion on raising the cap again, and wants more information about what’s driving the commission’s request.
Shannon said that, because lesser crimes aren’t being addressed in the city due to low officer staffing, she suspects they might be escalating into more substantial crime.
“It’s well known that we defunded the police here,” Shannon said. “There are less eyes on the street.”
Barlow is concerned about how long it will take the city to hire more officers, as attrition has quickened and the CNA report has been delayed. He thinks raising the officer cap would help address that staffing crunch.
He also thinks the council should listen to the concerns raised by the commission.
“We as a council delegate work to our commissions and boards,” Barlow said. “We should listen to them when they make recommendations in their areas of expertise.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated to include a recruiting update from Jon Murad, Burlington’s acting police chief.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Burlington City Council divided over whether to boost police officer cap.
