Billing for Extra Police Patrols

By Mike Donoghue
RUTLAND HERALD CORRESPONDENT
WATERBURY, Vt. — The city of Burlington has been put on notice the Vermont Department of Public Safety is likely to bill the community for 10 state troopers required to provide supplemental protection earlier this month, following a series of shootings there.

“The city has been informed that it might receive a periodic bill for these services, although DPS has made no final decision on whether to bill the city,” VSP spokesman Adam Silverman said on Thursday.

“If a decision is made to seek reimbursement from Burlington, this would apply only to the patrol services provided by the Critical Action Team when requested by the Burlington Police Department,” he said.

Any billing would not apply to other agency assist functions, such as deployment of the Crime Scene Search Team, Bomb Squad, SWAT team or any other special teams.

“The Vermont State Police expects to assist municipalities periodically with incidents or needs that exceed their capabilities, and budgets for those anticipated situations,” Public Safety Commissioner Jennifer Morrison said in an email. “We cannot, however, regularly supplant a local agency’s staffing without consideration of fairness to the other 250 municipalities across the state. We are tracking hours spent and will make a final determination on billing the city of Burlington later this fall.”

State Sen. Dick Mazza, D-Grand Isle/Colchester, said he agrees that state police can’t bail out every community. Vermont taxpayers should not be footing the bill, he said.

The dean of the Senate said Thursday he believes the state needs to bill Burlington for the extra special services of the state troopers doing foot patrols in this case because the city made a conscious decision to slash the number of sworn police officers to patrol in the community.

Mazza said he thinks it would set a bad precedent for the state police not to bill for basic patrol services.

Mazza, who lives in Colchester, said other towns are expected to maintain proper staffing levels for law enforcement. He said state police are short-handed themselves and are responding as needed to emergencies to assist other police agencies.

“Many police departments are stretched to the limit now,” Mazza said. “I see the Burlington as a separate issue. Burlington needs to address it.”

He said state police troopers are stretched thin themselves trying to cover the entire state.

The department has authorized 330 sworn troopers but has 47 vacancies. The shortage increases to about 75 when you add in troopers on military, family or sick leave, Silverman said.

Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger and Acting Police Chief Jon Murad did not respond to requests for comment.

The city of Burlington, which had the largest municipal police department in the state with over 100 sworn officers, has seen its ranks decimated in the past few years due to the lack of support from the city council and some taxpayers that support “defunding the police.” Some officers have jumped to other police departments or moved to other careers.

The city council voted two years ago to cut the authorized strength from 105 to 74 officers through attrition. The 30% reduction caused many officers to take early retirements or to move on.

The BPD stopped responding to many calls for service and residents have reported they have stopped calling in when victims of certain crimes.

The council recently has started to regret its defunding action, but few people have been willing to come forward to fill the police vacancies.

In an unprecedented request, Murad, as acting police chief, wrote to Col. Matthew Birmingham, director of the state police, on Aug. 13 just hours after two more people were shot on Main Street.

Police provided few details about the double shooting and withheld the names of the victims initially. Police finally made an arrest Wednesday night in the attempted double homicide on Aug. 13. The defendant, Abukar Hilowle, 19, of Burlington, also was charged with shooting a man in a car on Shelburne Road on Aug. 11.

Murad asked state police after the early morning shooting on Aug. 13 for help with foot patrols in downtown Burlington that night.

The state police eventually assigned 10 troopers with cruisers to the area near Church and Main streets from about 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Aug. 14.

Other requests for patrols by troopers may be made, officials said.

Silverman said he was unaware of the exact cost that the overtime pay would cost the city. Besides the roughly four-hour overtime shift in Burlington, there is an unknown charge for the time it took state troopers to drive to and from Burlington from their field stations across Vermont.