Updated at 6:45 p.m.
Hours before Brandon del Pozo was introduced to the media Tuesday as Burlington’s next police chief, he got a taste of how local residents might react to his appointment.
He was standing outside a house on South Union Street that he and his family hope to buy. After witnessing a woman fall, he dialed 9-1-1 and later introduced himself to one of the first responders.
“You’re the guy up from New York City,” the responder told him.
That guy from New York City is Mayor Miro Weinberger’s choice to serve as police chief of a municipality smaller than most New York City police precincts. If the Burlington City Council approves his appointment Monday, he will replace recently retired police chief Michael Schirling on Sept. 1.
The 40-year-old del Pozo spent the entirety of his 18-year police career there, starting as a patrol officer in his native Brooklyn and working his way up to deputy inspector.
“It is a huge plunge to go from a life that you’ve lived and a profession you’ve been in for 18 years in a big agency and come to what feels like — to my father, who’s from Cuba, this feels like a very, very far away place,” del Pozo said at an afternoon news conference.
But the 1996 Dartmouth College graduate has a varied background and Vermont ties. He said he “always envisioned” living and working in Burlington. He came here in 1998 to work at the U.S. Army Mountain Warfare School in Jericho. He and his wife, Sarah, returned to the city for their first wedding anniversary.
“I drag my family up to the top of Camel’s Hump in every single season,” said del Pozo, who has two sons, 3-year-old Rex and 7-year-old Zane. “I have a genuine affection for this city.”
In a 2002 New York Times Style section story about their wedding, del Pozo said he and his wife shared an affection for Vermont’s own Magic Hat #9. The article noted that he had his sights set on a top post in the NYPD.
At Tuesday’s news conference, del Pozo cited the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as an important moment in his police career. “It was a very humbling day to be a cop,” he said.
Weinberger chose del Pozo from about 30 applicants, including eight who were interviewed by a 20-member search committee. Four became finalists, including at least one internal candidate. Weinberger said del Pozo was the “consensus pick,” but that the decision was his as mayor.
Sarah Kenney, chair of the city Police Commission and a member of the search committee, said the New Yorker “impressed” a group that is not easily impressed.
Del Pozo stood out for his leadership experience, including four years as a precinct commander, and for his innovative spirit, Weinberger said. Along with his bachelor’s degree in philosophy, del Pozo has three master’s degrees and is working on his doctorate. He spent several years working for the NYPD’s intelligence division, including an assignment collecting and analyzing intelligence in the Middle East from a post in Amman, Jordan.
In various roles with the department, Weinberger said, del Pozo showed an inclination to reach out to under-represented communities.
“He’s bright. He’s been tested. He’s ready to be chief,” Weinberger said.
Del Pozo said he served in a West Village precinct that played host to both New York University and “Sex and the City.” The experience prompted him to work with an eclectic group of people whose lifestyles were sometimes at odds. He said he learned that policing is about more than ensuring public safety, but also about “brokering the fair terms of social cooperation.”
Burlington City Councilor Sara Giannoni interviewed the finalists. She said del Pozo cited examples of reaching out to gay communities and handling protesters. She said he would go out on patrol with officers.
Del Pozo also impressed Giannoni when he said Tuesday that he would bike to work and that he thinks cycling would be safer with more dedicated biking lanes and better street design. “Cyclists have always been an after-thought in urban design,” he said. “There’s a lot of room for engineering streets to accommodate the fact that there are at least three ways people get around and not just two.”
Pending approval of the City Council, Del Pozo will be paid $114,363 a year to oversee 100 police officers and nearly 40 civilian employees, according to the mayor. Del Pozo said that by leaving the New York Police Department just shy of 20 years, he gave up $12,000 a year for life.
“That and the house on South Union Street, if all goes well, is the price I have to pay to come to Burlington,” he said.
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This story would be improved if we could get a picture of the new person.
I remain open-minded but I do worry about NYPD influences. NYPD has proven itself to be VERY anti-cycling, anti-freedom, etc. in recent years. Also, as Mark Montalban alludes to NYC is a police state and a very scary place for American freedoms. But like I said, open-minded and we shall see. A friend criticized me years back that I was so open minded that my brain sometimes falls out.
I don’t doubt that the newly selected Chief candidate is not qualified to fill the position left vacant by the departure of Michael Schirling. He has all the bells and whistles to show himself to be a viable candidate. What concerns me is the impact that the selection of a candidate outside the department has on the department in whole. If there was an internal candidate within the top 4 of the selection process why not keep the promotion within the department. A young patrolman coming onto the department likes to believe that hard work and effort can be rewarded by advancement in the ranks. This paints quite a different picture and can have impact on morale in general. Chief Schirling was such an officer growing up within the ranks of the Burlington Police Department and reaching the reward of “Top Cop” in the department. He knew the people, the community, and the cultures. Again, I’m not inferring that the Chief candidate is unworthy. He will fulfill the rank of Chief in service to the community. What I have always admired about the community and department is the individuality of its homegrown rank and file, perhaps not at the recruitment level as it may be difficult to bring on local candidates at a pay level that does not support housing costs for the area, but retention of officers wanting to advance and dedicated to working for the community. That has been eroded in this process. How long before the in house qualified candidate moves on to greener pastures? Time will tell, it always does.
It seems Brandon del Pozo is the author of an enthusiastic defense of racial profiling. I read/skimmed his paper and it seems to be poorly reasoned and naive. He repeatedly assumes only the best of intentions from those who engage in race based enforcement and he fully embraces the circular logic of crime statistics derived from a justice system which disproportionately targets African Americans. He even throws in a defense of “Stop and Frisk.” https://lr.law.qut.edu.au/article/view/77
I can’t believe that the hiring of a Burlington police chief who has a history of explicitly defending racial profiling isn’t causing an uproar.
Hopefully the press will put some energy into covering his writings and statements on the subject. It seems like a very poor choice for a city dealing with rapid demographic change.
One white Brooklynite seemingly avoids the Vietnam war; carpetbags to Vermont to use this state for his relentless political ambitions; has two marriages and divorces in Vermont in quick succession; has a kid that he may or may not have cared for while he is voluntarily unemployed; writes stuff a long time ago that is clearly anti-woman; is pro-gun; is completely intolerant of and hostile to any opposing political views; spends 25 years in Congress with virtually no legislative accomplishments; and is a grumpy old white man. And what happens? Liberals here rabidly defend him; get mad that people are delving into his past; and get mad when people bring up his myscoginistic old writings.
Another Brooklynite, of minority heritage, and apparently still married to his first wife, is picked overwhelmingly by the Burlington police commission (headed by A WOMAN) and the Mayor to be the next chief of police. He has a bachelor’s degree and three master’s degrees. And what happens? Liberals who know absolutely nothing about this second Brooklynite except what they’ve read in the one short article above, “SKIM” a single old article and immediately and accuse him being a racist. It’s not even clear that one of the posters here even read the old article before jumping on the bandwagon that the new chief is a racist.
Funny.