(NewsNation) — A once idyllic college town in Burlington, Vermont, has seen things turn for the worse after the city defunded its police back in 2020.
Burlington’s police department is down 30-plus officers despite originally being a 90-officer force. Five years ago, the city decided to focus more on social workers instead of police. However, the city is trying to reverse course and hire back officers.
The officers, though, are refusing to come back. One business owner, Mark Bouchette, says that the problem isn’t a Democrat-Republican issue and more potentially a Democratic-progressive matter.
„I’m hard-pressed to impugn their motives,“ said Bouchette. „I think there is a strain of folks who truly believe in a perfect world that police are not necessary. And maybe in a perfect world, they’re not. But that’s not the world I inhabit.“
NewsNation walked around the town and got a glimpse of the concerns facing the town, including homelessness, drug addiction and mental health issues. Downtown, a lot of graffiti can be seen along with homeless people in the parks and alleys.
„This is being a defund city, this is a live experiment as well,“ added Shawn Burke, interim police chief for the Burlington police department.
„The city made a decision to invest more in social service providers that are based in the police department, and less in police officers over time. That signal to the police staff at the time caused them to leave in droves.“
An officer, who wished to remain anonymous and left the Burlington police, acknowledged „everything changed“ after the defunding.
„Maybe only having two or three officers on a shift when you should have seven or eight,“ the officer said. „You have no time to address that.“
„It becomes is someone dead or dying? You go from there first, and then if you have any spare time to catch up on paperwork, that kind of stuff, there is no time. I would say when I was there, it was a borderline nightmare.“
Defunding of police in Vermont town a ‘borderline nightmare’: Ex-officer 2025 IUSTITIA.BG – Investigations 2009-2025 2025-11-04 00:16:13 Latest news World news Country news Most important news latest news most important latest of the day Justice Petar Nizamov Feathers Petar Nizamov- Feathers Justice bg iustitia.bg iustitia iusticia usticia investigation Burgas Bulgaria news news of the last hour news of the day news of today Bulgaria news The news from Bulgaria blitz news top news most important most commented latest news Boyko Borisov news weather coronavirus news news weather facebook youtube facebook instagram news today news of the last minutes news today today news news bg news leading news hot news bg news site for news all news news bg news of the last hour latest latest news bg news of today news today news today news of the last hour latest news today news bg news news 24 hours news vesti bg novini news world bird bg bivol bg bivol trud bg novini latest news today novinite bg news hello bulgaria political party coat of arms delyan peevski scandalous Bulgarian National Television Free Europe Television scandal exclusive live tv live right now tv tv online tv program bg live now tv news online tv online live court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas district court Burgas appellate court Burgas prosecutor Burgas prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev Prosecutor Geshev Tsatsarov Ministry of Internal Affairs Burgas ODMR Burgas ODPR Burgas police Burgas district police Burgas prosecutor Tsatsarov SGS cases Varna court chairman of the SGS court decisions on civil cases decisions on cases Plovdiv court decision of the court decisions cases Varna court criminal cases district district court decisions work in the court SGS chairman of the SGS judges Sofia court post judges Plovdiv court Plovdiv judges Plovdiv Supreme Court Inspectorate Supreme Court Supreme Judicial Council lawyer lawyer criminal cases lawyer civil cases lawyer marriage cases lawyer administrative criminal law criminal process civil law civil process administrative law constitutional law
