We, the undersigned, call upon our Governor, legislators, prosecutors, municipal officials, and school boards to move beyond their statements of support for protests against systemic racism in our criminal justice system, and to make immediate, meaningful changes that demonstrate their commitment to the ideal of equal justice.  

Specifically, we call for the following:

1. Reallocating Our Public Safety Budgets. We call on our legislators, municipal officials, school boards to take a second look at how we are allocating our budgets, and prioritize our limited funding towards solutions that actually work to make us safe, instead of those that play towards our fears. 

We must stop asking police officers to be the first responders for people experiencing mental health or substance use disorders, and instead direct existing funding to peer support services, mental health workers, substance use counselors, and other social workers who can more effectively respond to these problems and provide people in crisis the help they need, without introducing unnecessary force or additional trauma. 

We call for the immediate removal of police officers from our schools, and for those positions to be replaced with embedded social workers and substance use counselors.  

2. Review Pending Cases.  Building on the work already begun by Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George, we call upon the Attorney General’s Office and county State’s Attorney offices to review their pending cases with Black defendants, in order to determine what role race played throughout the stages of the case -- the initial report, the arrest, the charging decision, the prosecution, and the proposed resolution – and whether consistent decisions were made in comparative cases with white defendants. When biases are uncovered, we call on prosecutors to take corrective measures.

3. Statewide Use of Force and De-Escalation Policy.  We call upon our legislators to pass a new law establishing a single, standard law enforcement use of force policy, including mandating de-escalation prior to any use of force, to which all police agencies throughout the state are mandated to adhere, and which the Vermont Police Academy is required to teach as a core component of its curriculum.  This policy must apply to all use of force, not only deadly use of force.  This policy must, at a minimum, incorporate these eight basic proposals highlighted by the #8cantwait campaign that have been shown to reduce police violence by 72%: (i) ban chokeholds and strangleholds; (ii) require de-escalation; (iii) require warning before shooting; (iv) require exhausting alternatives before shooting; (v) impose a duty to intervene; (vi) ban shooting at moving vehicles; (vii) require a use of force continuum; (viii) require comprehensive reporting. 

4. Independent, Centralized, Mandatory Review of All Police Use of Force Incidents.  We cannot allow the police to police themselves when it comes to their use of force against civilians.  We call upon our legislators to pass a new law mandating centralized, statewide, independent review of each police use of force incident (not just deadly use of force), applicable to all police agencies throughout the state. Officers involved in any use of force against a citizen, and officers who witnessed it, should be mandated to report the incident immediately through a well-defined, centralized reporting system. All reports, and the results of all investigations, must be publicly available, without requiring a public records request.

5. Mandate Use of Body Cameras.  We call on our legislators to mandate that all police officers be equipped with body cameras, and be required to use those cameras whenever interacting with a civilian. Officers should be subject to discipline for failure to use their body cameras. All footage should be publicly available for inspection without charge. The associated costs should be paid for using existing police agency budget appropriations, not new funding, and other police equipment purchases should be paused until this mandate is fulfilled. Police agencies should be financially penalized for failing to comply with this mandate.

6. Demilitarize our Police. We call on our legislators and municipal officials to ban the practice of deploying military equipment for civilian law enforcement purposes, including the use of armored vehicles, drones, surveillance equipment, camouflage uniforms, and other symbols and weapons of war. Vermont police agencies should be prohibited from participating in the Federal “1033” program.  The use of SWAT teams should be restricted to situations where there is an imminent threat to life. Agencies which have already purchased surplus military equipment should be required to return it.

7. Empowered Community Oversight.  We call on our municipal officials to establish effective and empowered civilian oversight structures such as police commissions and civilian complaint offices.  These oversight bodies should be empowered to receive and investigate complaints, to hold public disciplinary hearings regarding alleged police misconduct, and to discipline police officers found to violate the law or state or municipal policies.

8. Strengthen Existing Hate Crime Laws to Protect Vulnerable Community Members.  We cannot allow the police to be weaponized against racial, gender, or religious minorities.  We call on our legislators to expand Vermont’s hate-motivated crimes law to encompass the making of false 911 calls motivated by race, sexual orientation, gender identification, or religion.

 

Original Sponsors:

Rep. Mari Cordes (D/P - Addison-4)

Dave Silberman, Candidate for High Bailiff of Addison County

Jubilee McGill, Candidate for State House Addison-5

Barbara Wilson, Candidate for State House, Addison-Rutland

Rep. Caleb Elder (D - Addison-4)

Sen. Ruth Hardy (D - Addison)

(Photo credit: Jonathan King​, CC BY-SA 3.0)