The Bennington town government has taken another step toward creating a community group with oversight of the local police department, which was recommended by consultants in 2020.
A Bennington task force has worked since October to flesh out what it’s named the Community Police Advisory and Review Board. The task force’s recommendations center on how the Bennington Police Department should handle complaints against it.
The 12-page document, which is awaiting the Bennington Selectboard’s approval, was shared Monday. The town is seeking public comment before the selectboard votes on the recommendations March 28.
“I think having feedback from the community will be really important in our final decision making,” selectboard Chair Jeannie Jenkins said.
She said the selectboard can choose which portions of the task force’s recommendations to accept or reject. The goal is to have the police advisory and review board in place this May.
Creating the board is part of ongoing efforts to reform the Bennington Police Department, which began after the agency was criticized for not properly handling the harassment of former state Rep. Kiah Morris around 2016.
The town hired the International Association of Chiefs of Police in 2019 to perform a comprehensive review of the 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 that provides input on local police policy, such as receiving, investigating and adjudicating complaints made against police officers.
The task force’s recommendations lay out that the police advisory and review board is being created to improve and strengthen relations between Bennington police and the community. It also goes into how board members would be chosen and trained as well as the scope of its work, including recognizing compliments given to Bennington police.
It recommended the board be made up of five to seven members, who will serve three- or four-year terms upon appointment by the selectboard.
But a major part of the document is the police complaint process. This includes how people could initiate a complaint against Bennington police, how the police chief should report on the outcome of his internal investigation and that the board would review the internal investigation before deciding whether it agrees with the outcome.
Margae Diamond, co-chair of the Safety and Equity Task Force that developed the recommendations, said she believes the complaint process would help strengthen police-community relations because it is critical to ensure accountability.
She said the task force recommended that complaints be received by the police department and the board at the same time so that the board is “empowered to follow up and ensure timely and fair resolutions.”
Task force members spent the most time putting together the complaint procedure, Diamond said. She said their discussions included the challenges that local police faced amid their staffing constraints and community expectations of fair and impartial policing.
The task force believes increased training for police officers is essential to ensuring consistent, fair and just policing, Diamond said. The task force recommended increased training on bias, mental health and substance use to cope with the biggest challenges in the community.
When asked for his initial assessment of the recommendations, Bennington police Chief Paul Doucette declined to comment Monday, saying he first would like to hear from the public.
“I feel it is inappropriate for me to make comments before allowing community members to weigh in with their thoughts,” he wrote in an email. “Feedback from the Bennington Community is most important at this time and I would like to hear from them first.”
The task force plans present its recommendations at a special Bennington Selectboard meeting Feb. 21.
The public can submit written comments to the task force’s recommendations until March 7.
People also will have the opportunity to provide input during a Bennington Selectboard meeting March 14, Jenkins said. The selectboard also plans to discuss the comments it has received at this meeting, she said.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Bennington seeks public input on group that would have oversight of local police.