UNDERSTAFFED AND OVERLY SCRUTINIZED?: The Burlington Police Department continues to struggle with staffing shortages and now residents want increased oversight and disciplinary powers as well.
BURLINGTON — Ben & Jerry’s, the Vermont ice cream giant owned by Unilever, has formally endorsed a resolution set for Town Meeting Day in Burlington concerning the creation of a citizen-led police oversight body.
Last Wednesday, Ben & Jerry’s co-founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield met with activists to support what’s known as Item 7, which will take the form of a Town Meeting Day ballot question.
According to a press release, this initiative “if passed, will create an independent Community Control board to oversee local police, with both investigatory and disciplinary authority.”
Greenfield states, “Burlington has long been home to bold ideas for how to build a better world. Over the last three decades, we’ve seen the city thrive when it leans in and lives up to the values of its residents. That’s what Ballot Item 7 is about.”
City Councilors Gene Bergman, P-Ward 3, and Ali Dieng, I-Ward 7, support the effort and have suggested that a lot of time and resources have already been put into it.
“The fact that many people in this city do not trust the police speaks volumes to the need for our city to install independent public oversight,” Dieng said. “The City Council failed to act, they failed to do the right thing. They failed to provide the level of accountability that is needed and deserved.”
A group called People for Police Accountability is largely behind these efforts. A statement from the group says Item 7 is a “rare opportunity to decide to make our policing system incrementally better for all people.”
The Vermont ACLU is also in on these efforts. The group’s policy advocate, Indi Schoenherr, said “community control boards represent one of the most promising opportunities to create accountability trust between law enforcement and communities … [lending] much-needed checks and balances to the relationship between police departments and the people they serve.”
The press release continues with more enthusiastic quotes from supporting entities, including The Battery Park Movement, The National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement, ACLU Vermont, Howard Center Workers’ Union, Rights & Democracy, Vermont Progressive Party, Burlington Tenants United, Migrant Justice, Vermont Racial Alliance, Peace & Justice Center, Showing Up For Racial Justice, and Community Voices for Immigrant Rights.
Not everyone thinks citizen oversight is a good idea
But not everyone thinks a citizen-led board is a good idea. Brattleboro Police Chief Norma Hardy has noted calls for increased police oversight, and she’s warned it’s not going to work out well.
“Policing has been built on a certain structure, and even though we have worked towards changing the structure of policing as to how we relate to the public, we still need to maintain a certain structure because of the work that we do, Hardy said on the “Morning Drive” radio show earlier this month. “It comes with the training, it comes with the discipline, and it comes with how people handle very high voltage situations, and they have to have someone to look to for that.”
The Burlington Police Chief, Jon Murad, was on the same radio show in mid-January, and said too much scrutiny of his officers could have negative impacts.
“You know scrutiny is a part of this job, it has to be based on the authorities and responsibilities that police officers have, there has to be scrutiny about it, I try to insolate the men and women with whom I work from some of that, the sense of oppressiveness from some of that scrutiny, and we don’t think it’s oppressive we ultimately think it is fair but I do think that they need to focus on their work,” Murad said on their Feb. 6 episode.
Michael Bielawski is a reporter for True North. Send him news tips at bielawski82@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter @TrueNorthMikeB.
Why is the City of Burlington paying for the Vermont State Police to back up their decimated police force? To protect the social justice warriors from esculating crime in their city? Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield are champayne swilling millionaires who sold their business to a corporate conglomerate, Unilever. All the grifter non-profits listed are funded with dirty money – very dirty money. The joke is squarely on them. The conspiracies to commit fraud is hanging on all of their necks like a yoke. The only reason these bullhorn-holding fools are still yapping is the indictments have yet to be delivered upon their doorsteps. Judgement is coming upon them and they know it. Their desperation and babbling nonsense is obvious.
If you look at all the organizations that want this……it tells the whole story. Many are Astro turf, most all do not have the community in mind, are not part, nor do they live in the community……
We are being cherry picked once again. Subverted is the military term. Taking the wide road to a very warm place is the religious perspective.
Propaganda is very strong in this state.
One word…wow.
What a joke. Hey, all you LEOs in Vermont who are fed up with the liberal BS, come on down to Tennessee where the citizens respect and appreciate the hard and dangerous work you do the keep us safe.
All Burlington police officers should walk off the job. There are other communities that would appreciate their expertise. As for Ben & Jerry’s, that label will never be seen in my home or in our store from here on end.
I won’t eat Ben & Jerry’s even if you gave it to me.
Of course the 2 leftist loons from NY would like to continue the destruction started by their cohort burnie.. the other reason is they have nothing worth stealing and live in a gated community of Williston so no problem for them. Burlington is still reeling from the stupid defund the popo movement that led to more violence, theft and shootings. Personally i could care less as I don’t frequent the city at all.
My suggestion to the Burlington Police Dept. is to resign en mass. Leave Burlington and do law enforcement work in cities and towns that are looking for, need, and appreciate experienced officers.
Burlington has been eroding into a socialist driven cesspool of drugs and crime that will continue to spiral downward due to the people that continually get elected there. I do not live in Burlington, never will, and go there only when absolutely necessary.
Police….just walk off the job. Find another field or go to Florida or another Red state where you are welcome. This all total insanity. Let Burlington go without a police force. They are all such great, loving people, they don’t need one…and then sit back and watch the fun start, although it already has started. Never in my life have I ever seen so many murders in town. Just never happened like it does now, when we were a red state. Nope. What changed? I think we know.
The prerequisite for these civilians is the need to ride along for a month on the
nighttime shifts and really see what police work is !!
These community ” do-gooders ” will soil themselves when they really see what
really goes on at night and when they are confronted, and they will be …………….
Maybe Ben & Jerry need to ride along, fools with money, how pathetic !!
Great idea, great idea.
What qualifications will these citizens have in order to honestly and accurately evaluate the police?
How will they remove their anti law enforcement feelings from their “evaluations”?
The qualification is to be unqualified. Verbatim from the City of Burlington Warning:
“No member of the independent community control board shall have ever been employed by a law enforcement agency”
It’s probably a good gig, the next sentence:
“For time spent working on the independent community control board, members shall be entitled to fair compensation no less than set by the city’s livable wage ordinance.”
I’d expect that passage of this will start another wave of retirements and resignations from the BPD. Why Chief Murad puts up with Burlington politics is a mystery.
No qualification is a problem with condominium boards too……nasty messes, anti po po probably vats you first chair….
Members of any citizen oversight committee should be required to do a ride long for one week every six weeks, alternating shifts so that they have better understanding of the job that they are providing oversight for.
I am tired of civilians who have never experienced the job of the officers they are overseeing passing judgement on the actions taken by officers often in the middle of the night.