Weinberger to Restart Search for Burlington's Next Police Chief

By Courtney Lamdin on May 14, 2021 at 12:52PM

Months later, the city has still not forged a consensus on public safety. The city has hired two consultants to assess police department operations and gather community feedback about the future of policing; that work is ongoing.

Driver Who Allegedly Rammed a Porch While Shouting Racial Slurs Charged

By Colin Flanders on May 5, 2021 at 10:33PM

A white man shouted racial slurs as he drove a truck through a yard in Richford and rammed a porch where a Black resident was, that resident told police. The truck driver, Anthony Mason, 27, was reported to have threatened to kill the resident during the incident, police said in a press release.

Soldier With Lengthy Criminal History Is No Longer in Vermont National Guard

By Matthew Roy on April 15, 2021 at 11:11PM

Knight says he's working to address what he called "a gap in the information flow between civil law enforcement and the Guard." He said he has communicated with Vermont Public Safety Commissioner Michael Schirling, who has approached law enforcement leaders in the state about asking people, when they are charged with a crime, whether they are Guard members.

Vermont State Trooper, Former Police Officer Deny Assault Charges

By Derek Brouwer on April 13, 2021 at 9:30PM

Meantime, Franklin County State’s Attorney Jim Hughes said he is continuing to call the three former officers as witnesses in other criminal cases. “The pending charges are not offenses of moral turpitude or dishonesty,” he wrote in an email.

Burlington Police Higher-Ups Withdraw Petition to Unionize

By Courtney Lamdin on March 31, 2021 at 7:31PM

In recent days, Battery Park Movement activists took to social media to demand that city officials oppose the officers' attempt to unionize. In an Instagram post on Wednesday, the activists wrote that police don't belong in the labor movement, charging that police unions "insulate police from public scrutiny + accountability" and "obstruct efforts to reimagine public safety that reduce harmful reliances on police."

At Town Hall, Knight Addresses 'Repulsive' Allegations Against Guard Soldier

By Kevin McCallum on March 25, 2021 at 11:05PM

,” Knight said. The town hall event, which took place on Facebook Live, addressed a range of issues, including the Guard's overseas deployments, vaccination protocols and anger at the F-35 jets.

Burlington Police Sergeants, Lieutenants File Petition to Unionize

By Courtney Lamdin on March 25, 2021 at 2:42PM

Texas attorney Ron DeLord, a national police union expert and former cop, isn’t familiar with Vermont labor laws but said he supports the Burlington officers’ petition. He pointed to a possible scenario of a sergeant and officer responding to the same incident.

Vermont Officials Blast Proposal for Border Surveillance Towers

By Colin Flanders on March 17, 2021 at 7:18PM

Lavallee, the border patrol agent, could not say whether Vermont has experienced a recent uptick in illegal activity along the border that would necessitate new surveillance techniques. But he said the 295-mile Swanton border sector — which stretches from western New York to the eastern border of New Hampshire — reports a higher number of illegal crossings than the other northern sectors combined.

Vermont U.S. Attorney Christina Nolan to Resign

By Sasha Goldstein on February 9, 2021 at 3:39PM

Though Nolan had been recommended for the post by Republican Gov. Phil Scott and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), she’d ultimately been nominated by former president Donald Trump. Her resignation announcement on Tuesday came shortly after acting U.S. Attorney General Monty Wilkinson said he’d begin to clean house of Trump-appointed prosecutors.

Burlington Councilors Vote Against Raising Police Officer Staffing Cap

By Courtney Lamdin on February 9, 2021 at 2:27AM