https://policetribune.com/burlingto...police-force-works-too-well-but-its-too-late/
The same progressive Vermont city that defunded its police budget by 30 percent in 2020 is regretting the move and recently voted to give $10,000 bonuses to the officers they have left to keep them from quitting.
Chief Murad said the lawmakers didn’t account for the fact it takes 14 months to get a new police cadet out on patrol, and that only a few of hundreds of applicants actually made it through the police academy.
“There’s a lot of damage that has been done in the last 16 months,” Weinberger said.
Mental health providers have complained that the shortage of officers has placed mentally-ill people in more jeopardy on the street, NBC News reported.
Business owners said their employees were afraid to work in the evenings with so few officers on the streets.
After a year-and-a-half of enduring the new defunded police structure, everybody has admitted that defunding the police failed as a strategy for improving the community, including the woman that initially proposed it, NBC News reported.
The mayor asked the city council to raise the officer cap to 84 in January and the councilors responded by authorizing the police department to hire 10 unarmed, non-sworn community service officers and three social workers, NBC News reported.
But none of that was ever implemented.
The same progressive Vermont city that defunded its police budget by 30 percent in 2020 is regretting the move and recently voted to give $10,000 bonuses to the officers they have left to keep them from quitting.
Chief Murad said the lawmakers didn’t account for the fact it takes 14 months to get a new police cadet out on patrol, and that only a few of hundreds of applicants actually made it through the police academy.
“There’s a lot of damage that has been done in the last 16 months,” Weinberger said.
Mental health providers have complained that the shortage of officers has placed mentally-ill people in more jeopardy on the street, NBC News reported.
Business owners said their employees were afraid to work in the evenings with so few officers on the streets.
After a year-and-a-half of enduring the new defunded police structure, everybody has admitted that defunding the police failed as a strategy for improving the community, including the woman that initially proposed it, NBC News reported.
The mayor asked the city council to raise the officer cap to 84 in January and the councilors responded by authorizing the police department to hire 10 unarmed, non-sworn community service officers and three social workers, NBC News reported.
But none of that was ever implemented.
