Updated on December 16, 2024.
Burlington city councilors on Monday will discuss a report that recommends a police force of 105 officers — the maximum allowed before the now-infamous vote in 2020 to shrink the department’s size through attrition.
The report from outgoing Police Chief Jon Murad says officers are overburdened and that a smaller police presence has contributed to higher crime rates. Raising the cap would allow for regular patrols in neighborhoods and on the Church Street Marketplace, where theft and open-air drug use have caused widespread concern.
“I truly believe that there is a path by which the agency can return fully to what it was,” Murad wrote. With community support, he said, “we can rebuild.”
In a memo published online on Saturday, however, Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak wrote that the report inadequately analyzed recruitment efforts at the department. She also criticized Murad for including “specific proposals” that would harm the city’s negotiations with the police union. Large sections of the report were redacted.
“As a legislator, I relied heavily on professional, well researched, and data rich reports to make policy decisions,” Mulvaney-Stanak wrote. “The Chief’s report is not that.”
Murad’s report was in response to a September city council resolution that tasked him with recommending a new cap and analyzing recruitment trends. Introduced by council Democrats, the measure originally sought to remove the current 87-officer cap altogether, but they agreed to amend it after negotiating with Progressives, including the mayor.
The question of police staffing has been highly politicized since the June 2020 vote to limit the number of officers to 74. About 16 months later, the council raised the cap to 87 officers.
Since the original vote, 58 officers have left, the report says, and while the department has hired 30 officers, not all have stayed. There are now fewer than 70 officers on patrol. Murad has said he plans to leave the department no later than early April, and he anticipates nearly two dozen more departures or retirements before June 2028.
Raising the head count would revive “community policing,” where cops on a beat could forge relationships with neighbors, Murad writes. As many as six officers could be assigned to the Marketplace, and the Street Crime Unit could be reactivated. Department social workers would be able to deploy with armed officers, the report says.
Murad suggests that the 2020 vote and subsequent debates over police staffing are largely to blame for the department’s hiring woes. He says the city should formally apologize for the vote. Doing so would be “one of the most important retention tools,” Murad wrote, and wouldn’t cost anything.
The report recommends maintaining hiring bonuses, investing in officer training opportunities and increasing the pay scale for supervisors. It urges the city to address the aging police station at 1 North Avenue, which Murad said is “past time for an overhaul or a wrecking ball.”
Murad also included salary ranges and vacancies at other area departments. Milton police have a comparable starting salary — about $4,000 less than Burlington’s $76,717 — but only two vacancies on their 17-officer force. South Burlington, meantime, is authorized for 40 officers but has 10 open spots. Winooski PD is fully staffed with 15 officers yet pays new cops about $13,500 less than they’d make in Burlington.
At September’s meeting, Progressives argued that raising the cap was symbolic and performative, rather than actually helpful. They said the department should focus on why the city can’t hire cops when it’s offered generous bonuses and pay raises.
“I just cannot get past this idea that the problem with recruitment is that we have a cap of 87 officers … when we cannot even reach the cap,” Councilor Marek Broderick (P-Ward 8) said at the time. “We should be focusing on the root cause.”
Other recommendations were redacted by city attorneys. In her memo, Mulvaney-Stanak said the report “serves as a laundry list of possible contract-related offers” at a time when the city is facing significant budget challenges. Officials are anticipating a budget gap of up to $12 million in fiscal year 2026.
Murad has already shared the unredacted report with the police union, an “ill-advised action that has already diminished our bargaining stance,” Mulvaney-Stanak wrote.
Councilors will meet in executive session on Monday to discuss whether to release the unredacted report. Mulvaney-Stanak also plans to “commission an expert assessment” of recruitment challenges at the department.
“The fact that I cannot endorse the report in no way changes my commitment to rebuilding the Department,” she wrote, “but I cannot suggest to the Union or to the public that we have unlimited resources to do so.”
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