(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.”
Manhunt underway after Harvard Medical School explosion
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.”
Asst. police chief arrested, accused of lying about being the target of a drive-by shooting
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.”
