Burlington residents, officials seek police oversight after fatal shooting

BURLINGTON — After Monday’s police shooting that claimed the life of a 76-year-old man described as mentally ill, advocates and elected officials are calling for an investigation beyond the one being conducted by law enforcement and for greater police accountability.

Burlington Police Officer David Bowers, 23, shot and killed Ralph “Phil” Grenon inside his downtown apartment after a five-hour standoff during which police say they went to great lengths to resolve the situation without hurting Grenon.

It is the third time in four years that police in Vermont have killed a person identified as mentally ill whom they had set out to help. Two of those killings were by Burlington police officers, and the third occurred in Thetford.

Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger has promised an internal review at the city level “to determine lessons from this incident that should inform our handling of future similar situations.” However, that’s unlikely to satisfy those calling for greater oversight of city police.

“People were freaked out and angry,” said City Councilor Sara Giannoni, P-Ward 3, describing the reaction of residents who crowded a Police Commission meeting Tuesday night.

Karen Porter, a social worker who was among those at the meeting, described in a statement the outrage she and others who work with the city’s poor and mentally ill are feeling in the wake of Grenon’s killing.

Porter called for an end to the “reckless, threatening and escalated tactics by the police towards individuals in vulnerable situations” and said she and others will continue to push for “independent oversight of the Burlington Police Department.”

Police Chief Brandon del Pozo, who was on the scene for much of Monday’s standoff, has said his officers were anything but cavalier in their handling of the situation.

Del Pozo has said repeatedly that he is committed to transparency and accountability, holding multiple briefings for the public and the press where he offered as much detail as he said the ongoing state police investigation into the shooting will allow. He said he wants the body camera video captured during the standoff released to the public as quickly as possible.

The chief said his officers acted with restraint and did not rush the situation, but that it needed to be resolved or Grenon might have hurt himself.

Allen Gilbert, executive director of the Vermont chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said he doesn’t buy that argument. Although this situation played out over five hours, instead of the minutes it took an officer in 2013 to shoot a shovel-wielding man who was also identified as mentally ill, Gilbert said police are still too quick to use deadly force.

“I think there are other alternatives out there that for some reason police are not reaching for, and instead they’re reaching for a gun because that’s the ultimate control, or force, that an officer has over a citizen,” Gilbert said.

“Now there’s a 23-year-old Vermont man who killed someone he bore no malice against, someone he tried to help and ended up killing,” Gilbert added, voicing a sentiment echoed by many in law enforcement and many of those advocating for greater oversight.

Those advocating for outside review say the state police officers who will conduct the investigation into Bowers’ actions and the prosecutors who will review their report work too closely with the Burlington Police Department to be objective in deciding if the killing was justified.

City Councilor Selene Colburn, P-East District, said she has tremendous respect for state police and Chittenden County State’s Attorney TJ Donovan, but the fact that both are in “near day-to-day working relationships” with Burlington police makes it difficult to accept their findings.

“To expect them to conduct an objective review is not fair to anyone involved,” Colburn said.

Donovan rejects the notion that his office is unable to be objective in reviewing police shootings, and he noted that the attorney general’s office also reviews such incidents and can bring charges.

“These are unfortunate cases, and we hope not to have to review them, but when we do we’re transparent about the basis of our decisions,” Donovan said. “It’s our obligation to do it in an honest, transparent way. When we have to hold someone accountable we will. If it’s justified we’ll explain why.”

Even if prosecutors are able to be objective, the investigation that government attorneys review is performed and presented to them by state police, Gilbert said.

“It creates the impression of a conflict of interest, because cops are investigating cops,” he said. “There’s also a perception, which may or may not be in sync with reality, that as a result police are not being held accountable.”

Another issue is the chasm between the scope of the criminal justice system’s review — which looks only at whether, in the moment that an officer used lethal force, the officer was justified in believing the person posed an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm — and the broader review advocates want, which would look at protocols, training and the actions that led up to the use of force.

“We’re talking about a review not just looking at culpability but what could have happened differently,” said Colburn, the councilor.

Donovan said that’s not something his office is equipped to do. “Are we reviewing the larger context of the tactics that were used? No,” he said. “Is there an argument that those tactics and strategies should be subject to a different sort of review? Perhaps, but that’s not my jurisdiction.”

Gilbert writes in a blog post on the ACLU Vermont website that one way to create greater accountability in policing would be through professional licensing.

“There is no autonomous independent oversight body looking at the conduct of police, as there is for 46 other licensed professions in this state,” Gilbert said.

Another possibility for greater police oversight is empowering local citizen commissions, advocates say.

ACLU Vermont staff attorney Jay Diaz tweeted a link to a report from the organization’s chapter in New Jersey about Newark officials’ action this month creating a civilian complaint review board to hold the city’s police to account. The ACLU says it is “poised to become one of the strongest police oversight boards in the country.”

“The new law gives the panel subpoena power, the power to audit police policies and practices, mechanisms to enhance transparency in the police department, and the authority to make sure discipline sticks when officers are found to have engaged in wrongdoing,” according to the ACLU’s post.

Councilor Giannoni said she is aware of the Newark model and has had conversations with her fellow councilors about ways to build citizen oversight of police in Burlington, but they haven’t settled on anything specific yet.

Rachel Siegel, executive director of the nonprofit Peace and Justice Center and a former city councilor, said that right now Burlington’s Police Commission can offer little in terms of the accountability or oversight she and other residents believe is necessary, because it lacks any real authority.

“The city charter says almost nothing about what the Police Commission should do. We need to define what the Police Commission exists for,” she said.

The City Council could pass an ordinance giving commissioners greater power to review the Police Department’s policies and the conduct of its officers, Siegel said. Such an ordinance would need voter approval, approval from the Legislature and the governor’s signature.

Siegel said she sees some promise in empowering the Police Commission. But she cautioned that without their own attorneys or staff, the commission’s volunteer members may still be too reliant on city officials and the Police Department to provide truly independent oversight.

“The best thing may be some outside body,” she said.

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