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An interfaith group’s guide for talking with police

By Keith Whitcomb Jr.
RUTLAND HERALD
BURLINGTON — Communities who want better relations with their police departments now have a guide they can turn to.

After months of speaking with police officers, community leaders and others in the criminal justice system about how police in Vermont go about doing their jobs, Vermont Interfaith Action has released a document it says will help folks benefit from their research. It can be downloaded from viavt.org which is the group’s homepage online.

It was unveiled Wednesday in Burlington at an event during which a number of people involved in the project spoke. Among them was Nina Regan, a member of All Souls Interfaith Gathering in Shelburne, who was involved in creating “A Vermont Guide to Community Engagement with Local Police Departments” explained how it was created and gave some insight into the minds of the people interviewed for it.

“Not surprisingly there are differing views on the issues,” she said. “One of our chief conclusions is that there is no consensus on the nature or extent of racism in policing in Vermont. Some interviewees, citing traffic stop data and anecdotal reports, believe there is evidence of over-policing people of color in many jurisdictions.”

Some interviewed noted policies and training programs intended to minimize bias.

“One interviewee noted that violence, arrests and incarcerations are disproportionately focused on people of color and that community safety must be viewed as much broader than just policing,” said Regan.

Several people Vermont Interfaith Action spoke to had concerns about the wide range of disparities reported among the state’s police departments.

“Some were frustrated by Vermont’s limited ability to enforce standards across Vermont’s law enforcement organizations emphasizing that local police departments think that they can police as they see fit and often rebuff attempts by the state to help them improve their performance in this regard,” she said.

According to Regan, several people wanted to see the Department of Public Safety become an agency, allowing it to be more efficient.

“Such a change would also provide a mechanism for consolidating police resources regionally and for the state to have a greater influence over the basic practices over town and county police officers,” she said.

One law enforcement official interviewed told the interviewers that explicit bias in policing is found everywhere, but in Vermont it is occasional and not pervasive. The official took issue with the small size of the data sets, saying a single incident would drastically skew the perception of how much disparity there is.

“Another official asserted that there is not much evidence of racism in the daily behavior of police officers but conceded that racism occurs upstream of police interactions, such as in education, housing and employment,” said Regan.

Though many interviewees were in favor of civilian oversight of police, it was noted that these boards and commissions would be ineffective without proper training and methods of promoting communication and trust.

The guide contains a list of resources folks can look to for this.

“One senior law-enforcement officer, however, pointedly said they do not support community oversight because of concerns about people inexperienced with policing second guessing the actions of individual officers,” said Regan. “As for community engagement, many noted the need to strengthen communication and trust between citizens and police departments.”

Some departments have reached out to their communities for feedback and received little to none, she noted, however these departments remain interested in learning people’s opinions.

The guide stresses the importance of “community brokers,” people who understand the community and the police can help bridge gaps in their mindsets and thinking.

One police chief the group spoke with said some communities feel they have an open line of communication with their police, while other communities, namely the marginalized ones, likely do not.

“Many interviewees noted the need for deep cultural changes in police departments,” said Regan. “One noted that police deserve respect, as do each one of the people with whom they interact.”

keith.whitcomb @rutlandherald.com

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