Burlington Police Department cruisers parked outside the department in Burlington on Monday, August 26. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
The latest proposal in Burlington’s multi-year effort to increase civilian oversight of the city’s police department will be up for a vote this November. It won broad support among the City Council, but the police chief and police union has come out against the measure.
Burlington residents will be asked to enshrine new powers for the police commission, a governing body appointed by the council to oversee the police department, into the city’s charter. The measure, if passed, would allow the commission to convene an independent panel to scrutinize officer misconduct and to decide on disciplinary measures — taking sole authority away from the police chief.
Under the charter change, an independent panel of three to five community members would make police disciplinary decisions. The composition of that panel, and who would appoint its members, hasn’t been decided. If residents approve the change, the Vermont Legislature would then need to sign off on it.
Burlington’s City Council voted unanimously in July to place the charter change on the ballot. In a joint statement last week, Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, a Progressive, Council President Ben Traverse, a Democrat, and Progressive Councilor Gene Bergman called it “the result of a years-long effort to respond to community interest in strengthening community input in the review of police.”
“This is a chance to really put into place the type of role that our existing police commission should have, and codify it right now, and there’s no reason why it should not be part of the letter of the law,” Bergman said in an interview.
But despite his boss’ endorsement of the idea, Police Chief Jon Murad is pushing back against the proposal. Pointing to existing regulations within the department, he characterized the charter change as unnecessary in a written statement. In an interview on Town Meeting TV, Murad and Joseph Corrow, the head of the Burlington Police Officers Association, suggested it could stifle efforts to recruit officers to the short-staffed department.
“We are constantly under the microscope, and this just puts us under a bigger microscope, and I don’t want to see more police officers leave, and I don’t want to see more police officers not come and work for us,” Corrow said.
Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad speaks at a press conference where he and Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak discussed the city’s response to several recent violent incidents on Monday, August 26. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
Corrow said he has never heard of potential recruits “looking in this deeply — usually it’s just, ‘I want to be a police officer, I want to work here.’ Now, it’s, ‘I want to be a police officer, but I don’t want that much scrutiny and that much liability and I don’t want to feel like I’m not supported.’”
Efforts began in 2020 to enshrine more civilian oversight after two use-of-force cases in 2019 embroiled the department in lawsuits.
The city has since paid out nearly $1 million from the two separate excessive force lawsuits — one settled in August for $215,000 and another last year for $750,000. A third excessive force lawsuit was filed in court this year and remains in process.
The cases were magnified after the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota set off nationwide protests in the summer of 2020.
“This charter change helps ensure fair and impartial policing practices and is born out of critical community conversations about racial justice in 2020,” Mulvaney-Stanak said in a written statement.
The November ballot item marks the first time in recent memory that Progressives and Democrats on the council have agreed to, at least, bring a police oversight measure to the voters.
Traverse, in an interview, said the council’s unanimous approval in July to place the question on the ballot “was a vote of confidence that this is a measure that has gone through the appropriate process, has received important public feedback, and is in a place where voters deserve an opportunity to weigh in on that.”
The Progressive-led council approved a measure in December 2020 that would have granted full power to a community control board to hire and fire police officers, including the chief. But then-Mayor Miro Weinberger vetoed the proposal the following month.
Traverse said he thinks the proposal on the ballot this year is “not too far off” from what Weinberger proposed after vetoing the initial effort.
A similar proposal was shot down in 2023, this time by voters, after residents petitioned to put it on the Town Meeting Day ballot.
The current version, written by a bipartisan committee of councilors, differs from the current charter by placing more authority in the hands of the police commission, and requiring the police chief to provide information on internal investigations to the commission.
Mulvaney-Stanak, in her statement, said the charter change “would clarify that the chief of police, like all other department heads, is subject to the authority of the mayor as the city’s chief executive.”
But while the city’s Democrats and Progressives seem to have struck a balance on the measure, Chief Murad remains opposed to it and has instead pointed to existing regulations.
That policy, known as DD40, was adopted this summer. In an email, Murad said the policy was the result of coordination with the independent Burlington Police Commission, the city attorney’s office, the city’s human resources department and the Burlington Police Officers Association.
That policy directs the chief to consult with commissioners, and provide them access to body camera footage, for example.
“Uncertainty and instability aren’t good for our police department, which is why the DD40 process eschews those in favor of clear rules and collaboration,” Murad said.
The current policy directive, he continued, “shows that we already have a functioning, fair, transparent, thorough practice for complaints, discipline, and oversight. It ensures accountability, fairness, and public involvement (through the Police Commission).”
Bergman, in an interview, said he thinks the chief is “totally wrong.” DD40 was only recently implemented and could always be changed, he said. The charter change in contrast “would limit the authority to just change it.”
“That’s an important piece of this,” he said.
Furthermore, the charter change sets out that auditing and monitoring are a function of the commission, and that commission members are required to receive critical information from the chief and department — something Bergman said is lacking in the department’s directive.
“He, again, seems to be thinking that he should be in full control, in charge, of everything,” Bergman said. “It adds insecurity and instability when he opposes something that has been unanimously supported by the city council and put on the ballot.”
Traverse agreed that efforts to enshrine these policies in a charter rather than through an ordinance benefit the city.
“Who’s to say that the next police chief or the next mayor wouldn’t be interested in walking back on some of those good practices that have been stood up?” Traverse said. “If anything, I view this ballot question as an opportunity for the community to endorse the good work that the chief and the commission and the former mayor did in this area.”
Read the story on VTDigger here: Burlington mayor, councilors at odds with police chief over police oversight ballot item .