The City of Burlington held a community forum at City Hall Sept. 19 to present its current efforts to address issues regarding public safety.
Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak and other city officials addressed issues such as gun violence and bail, according to the meeting agenda.
The city plans on directing $100,000 to Burlington Police Department recruitment resources, and $50,000 to working with encampments through BPD’s Community Response Team, Mulvaney-Stanak said at the meeting.
“Community safety is my top priority,” Mulvaney-Stanak said. “We need to improve our system so it is responsive, effective and comprehensive to meet the challenges here in the city.”
Mulvaney-Stanak said while the issues were pressing, work takes time. She plans on investing in community safety, decreasing crime hot-spots and working on youth violence. She said that previous attempts to limit hot-spots have only moved their locations, but now their numbers are slowly declining.
John Murad, Burlington police chief, said he attributes the uptick in crime to a lack of sworn officers and members of the dispatch center. He said BPD have hired only seven new sworn officers so far this year, compared to the 15 hired the previous year.
“In the years prior to 2020, we would see as many as 200 or more applicants in a given calendar year,” Murad said. “This year, we have seen a total of 50.”
Jessica Brown, Burlington city attorney, said some residents want defendants held before trial. Brown explained that cash bail is not for public safety. She said the Vermont state bail statutes specify that cash bail is for the limited purpose of preventing flight risk.
Brown said it would be unlawful for Burlington to jail criminals before trial over means of risk preservation, and that Burlington’s court system cannot use cash bail as a means of retaining people charged with a crime, and can only be used to reduce flight risk.
“Cash bail can reflect wealth disparity. It does not directly address safety,” Brown said.
Phil Baruth, Vermont Senate president pro tempore and UVM professor of English, said there was another layer of complications to controlling the Burlington violence—the complexity of passing a gun control bill. He said plans to introduce a bill that will aim to ban assault weapons in the next legislative session.
Baruth also wants the city to resurface a 10-year-old gun control charter change that Burlington residents voted for in March 2014 that would prohibit guns in places where alcohol is sold.
While the original charter was challenged when introduced at the state level, Baruth said residents could pass an updated charter if it were on the ballot the next Town Meeting Day. Mulvaney-Stanak said she supported the measure being placed on the ballot.
Some Burlington residents said they were alarmed by the uptick in crime in the state in recent years.
“We’ve gone from a rural state where guns were for hunting and sport to violence,” said Maddy Posig, a Burlington resident who spoke at the forum. “It’s a transition I don’t think we were prepared for.”
Other citizens are concerned that new laws regulating guns would not have the outcome the city wants. Micheal LaChance, chief of the Burlington Firefighter Department, said he questioned whether violence would occur anyway.
“I think of the Red Square situation,” LaChance said. “Folks, united responders, they responded quickly. There’s a pretty [cut and dry] case actually. But would any gun reform have stopped that? I don’t know.”
Mulvaney-Stanak said she doesn’t want citizens to feel this situation is out of their control. She said the issue of public safety is bigger than just a city and a mayor, and that she welcomed ideas from Burlington residents.
“I need your help. I need your engagement. I need your ideas. I mostly need your solutions,” Mulvaney-Stanak said.
