For four years, Burlington city councilors failed to reach consensus on police oversight. But this summer, Democrats and Progressives finally agreed on a proposal — and now they’re asking voters to weigh in.
The question, on the November ballot, is whether to grant more power to the existing police commission, including the ability to convene a new, independent panel to review cases of officer misconduct. The measure would require changing the city’s charter and would ultimately have to be approved by the legislature.
It’s the third effort to enshrine greater police oversight in the city’s charter since 2020, when Burlington — and the rest of the nation — reckoned with racial justice and policing after Minneapolis police officers murdered George Floyd on camera.
“It’s important that we settle this question,” City Council President Ben Traverse (D-Ward 5) said. “I’m hoping that we settle it with this proposal.”
Despite widespread support from elected officials, the ballot item faces opposition from Burlington police, including Chief Jon Murad, who say the proposal is overkill and would harm ongoing efforts to restaff the shorthanded department. Adopting the model would be akin to “using snow tires in Florida,” Murad said during a discussion on Town Meeting TV last month, later adding, “What we have right now is a system that works.”
It’s one of two items on the ballot in Burlington this fall. The second asks voters to approve a $20 million bond for the Burlington Electric Department to use for “net zero energy and grid reliability projects.” Ratepayers would eventually contribute to repay the bond, but it is expected to tamp down rate increases in the short term.
Efforts to increase police oversight began in earnest in 2019 after two excessive-force lawsuits were filed against Burlington. Both have since been settled. Another suit, filed early this year, is pending.
In 2020, council Progressives led the charge to create an “independent community control board” whose members would have had the power to hire and fire cops, including the chief. Law enforcement officers, and their family members, would have been barred from serving on the panel.
The council approved the measure in December 2020, but former mayor Miro Weinberger vetoed the proposal. It resurfaced in 2023 when a group of activists petitioned to place a near-identical measure on the Town Meeting Day ballot. Weinberger formed a political action committee to defeat the item, and Democratic councilors took the unusual step of passing a resolution urging voters not to approve it.
The question failed, and Democrats promised to craft a new proposal. A bipartisan committee drafted the current version, which won unanimous council approval in July. Last week, Traverse, Councilor Gene Bergman (P-Ward 2) and Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, a Prog, issued a joint statement encouraging residents to vote yes.
As now written, the city’s charter only allows the police commission to review department policies and serve as an appeals board for officer grievances. By department policy, its seven members can recommend disciplinary action, but only the police chief can mete it out.
The ballot item would give the commission more teeth by giving it the authority to review all civilian complaints and internal investigations. The police chief would be required to provide “timely updates” about the probes and, for the most serious allegations, allow commissioners to weigh in before an officer is punished. If commissioners disagreed with the police chief’s proposed discipline, they could offer an alternative or, with a two-thirds vote, hire an independent investigator to review the complaint, then vote on how it should be settled. The chief could accept or reject their recommendation.
If the parties were still at odds, commissioners, again with a two-thirds vote, would be able to refer the matter to an independent panel that could override the chief’s decision. Officers, meanwhile, would have the opportunity to file a grievance — a step that wasn’t included in previous oversight proposals.
The makeup of the panel will be described in a city ordinance that’s still being hashed out. The most recent version, advanced by a council subcommittee on a 2-1 vote, describes a panel of five people, all of whom would be appointed by the mayor and city council president. Four of five members should have at least 10 years’ experience in a related field such as law enforcement, human resources and the court system. The final member would need a background in either criminal justice reform or racial justice. The draft doesn’t include a requirement that panelists live in Burlington.
“This is definitely better than what exists right now.” Councilor Gene Bergman
Bergman, who cast the subcommittee’s lone no vote, said expecting members to have a decade of experience is too limiting. He’d also like other fields of expertise, such as juvenile justice, substance-use disorder and mental health, to be on the list of qualifying professions. Bergman, Traverse and Mulvaney-Stanak have agreed to work on the language, but in the meantime, ballots have already been mailed to registered voters.
Bergman is backing the current version despite his previous support for the “control board.”
“This is definitely better than what exists right now, and I think that it gives the community the oversight that we need to codify,” he said. “The past has shown that there’s a need for this.”
That includes concerns over racial disparities. Burlington police data show that in 2023, Black drivers were more likely to be ticketed than white drivers and were stopped by police at a disproportionate rate, in line with previous years. They were also more likely to be subjected to force than white people.
At a police commission meeting this summer, Murad called this data “concerning” and pledged to review the traffic stop trends in particular. All three of Burlington’s excessive-force lawsuits were filed by Black people, one as young as 14.
Former police commissioner Stephanie Seguino, who researches racial disparities in policing, said the numbers demonstrate the need for a stronger commission.
“The department has a flawed perception of its ability to police in an unbiased way,” she said. “That feedback from the community, through an organization such as the police commission, is important for reflecting back to them where they need to do better.”
Police officials disagree. In response to interview requests, both Murad and members of the Burlington Police Officers’ Association emailed statements that say the charter change is unnecessary when the commission’s powers are already described in a department policy.
Known as DD40, the 29-page directive says the chief will consult with commissioners, and it gives them authority to review body camera footage. If the parties disagree on discipline, the policy says commissioners should notify the mayor, not an independent investigator.
The current policy does not include an independent review panel. In the Town Meeting TV discussion, Murad described that level of oversight as appropriate for departments under court-approved plans for reform, known as consent decrees. Between department policy and the Vermont Criminal Justice Training Council, the statewide body that certifies officers, “there’s a plethora of oversight for any officer” in Burlington, Murad said.
“I strongly object to the creation of a political apparatus to which we would subject officers,” he said. “Ultimately I believe that’s what this independent panel would be.”
Council President Traverse pointed out that in some towns, selectboards decide how to discipline officers — a more political process. Requiring a two-thirds majority to even convene the panel would be a high bar, Traverse said, suggesting the option wouldn’t be used very often.
“This is more like snow tires in Virginia,” he said, riffing on Murad’s Florida analogy. “As someone who used to live in the Washington, D.C., area, I can tell you, now and again, it snows.”
“We are constantly under the microscope, and this just puts us under a bigger microscope.” Det. Cpl. Joe Corrow
Officers say the panel would scare off potential recruits. Authorized to have up to 87 officers on staff, the police department has just 67. About two dozen people applied for police jobs this year, compared to more than 100 in 2023. None of the latest recruits at the Vermont Police Academy applied to work in Burlington due to “the lack of support from the city,” the union’s statement says.
“We are constantly under the microscope, and this just puts us under a bigger microscope,” Det. Cpl. Joe Corrow, the union president, said on Town Meeting TV.
Councilor Melo Grant (P-Central District), a former police commissioner, said she’s disappointed that Corrow and Murad have become “the face of the opposition” to the ballot item. Both members of the department have been the subject of citizen complaints and, in Corrow’s case, a lawsuit.
“If the department would embrace certain changes and actually get serious about community engagement, they would be in a much better place,” Grant said in a statement. “We must have a strategic plan to address the reputation of the department, not argue against something that will help it.”
Other councilors noted that in recent months, the council has approved a strong police contract, offered hiring bonuses and agreed to study the possibility of increasing the hiring “cap” on the department roster — all in the name of bolstering recruitment. Some councilors have suggested renovating the police station or building a new one in order to compete with surrounding departments.
If voters reject the item, Traverse noted, somebody could propose a more aggressive oversight model. Councilor Bergman, for one, thought this version could have gone farther. But he sees it as a compromise.
“This is a reasonable, very modest step forward to significantly improve the community oversight of our police department,” Bergman said. “And that is very, very important.”
The original print version of this article was headlined “Déjà Vote | Burlington’s police oversight proposal gets support from councilors — and pushback from cops”
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This article appears in Oct 16-22, 2024.
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