The Burlington, Vermont Police Commission met this week to hear the Police Chief’s monthly report and get an update on the department’s use of force.
Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad updates the commission monthly on the department’s activities, which in September included a Law Enforcement Torch Run, patrolling the Pride March and several incidents. Murad also noted that the vehicle fleet is aging and not being replaced.
“We’re currently down by seven vehicles," noted Murad. "We had five that were on order. Those were not ultimately ordered and delivered. We haven’t had a new vehicle since, I think we’ve only had two since 2021. Officer cruisers put huge numbers of hours on the engine. It’s not about the mileage, its about the engine hours and ours are routinely used about ten times more than the average for a vehicle in America.”
Commission Co-Chair Shakuntala Rao asked Murad why the fleet is so low.
“Isn’t there a process by which you order these vehicles?" queried Rao. " Because it seems like being down seven vehicles seems like a lot.”
“Yes," Murad replied. "I mean I think that there was probably a thought that since we were so understaffed that the vehicles maybe didn’t need to be processed. We had ordered them. We had five on order. But that order, for whatever reason, wasn’t, it didn’t get completed. We’re working hard with our partners at the city, these are centrally purchased not purchased by the police department, what happened with that order. But certainly we’re at a stage right now where we do need new ones.”
Commissioners received a report from National Alliance on Mental Illness of Vermont Executive Director Laurie Emerson on policing and mental health. She wanted the Police Commission to understand the link between mental illness and violence.
“People with serious mental illness are not violent to other people. In fact only 4 percent of violent acts in the United States are associated with serious mental illness,' explained Emerson. "So research tells us that there are other factors such as substance use, drugs, alcohol, prior convictions of violent misdemeanors. And those can be really greater predictors of violence, that it’s not just mental illness. And actually people with mental illness are 23 times more likely to be victims of a violent crime. So I think those are really important statistics to know in the community when police are responding to incidents.”
The Police Commission received a draft presentation of the Police Department’s 2022 Annual Report. According to the document it covers activity for that year in six key areas: police interactions, incidents, offenses, traffic and pedestrian stops, arrests, and uses of force. Burlington City Data Analyst Zoe Portlas offered key findings in each area, including data on use of force.
“Two hundred and eight uses of force in 2022, which is up 11% from 2021," reported Portlas. "The majority of those were either on white or Black subjects of force. There were 150 uses of force on white subjects and 49 on Black subjects. The present of interactions with the police who are white is similar to the percent of arrestees who are white, and the percent of subjects of force who are white. This is the first time it's been a very similar percentage. Black subjects of force is for the first time in several years, since 2016, similar to the percent of arrestees who are Black and both of these are higher than the percent of people who interacted with the BPD, who were Black.”
