Starting next week, the town
of Hartford will try something new, putting the fire chief in
charge of the police department. The plan has the support of the selectboard, but even the Town Manager admits
it’s an experiment.
The Vermont
Supreme Court has sided with the city of St. Albans in a dispute with the Franklin County sheriff. The court rejected
the sheriff’s argument that the bidding process for providing law enforcement
in St. Albans was so unfair that it killed any competition.
Protesters
in Burlington say police still need to explain their response to an
altercation last week outside the downtown hotel where New England governors and Eastern Canadian premiers were meeting.
Some
town officials in Orange County say they’re concerned that state police response
times may slow in the future as the state continues to replace and
consolidate aging facilities, including the barracks in Bradford.
A driver whose car slid and tipped over in a
ditch last month has helped to refuel a debate about whether police in the Upper Valley town of Hartford have been too
heavy-handed in some recent arrests.
While a handful of towns in Vermont are considering creating a joint police force to cut costs, a similar arrangement in Franklin County has led to a legal challenge that’s headed to the state’s highest court.
A group of Southern Windsor County towns is
looking into the possibility of a shared, regional police force. Officials say the policing needs of Vermont towns are changing.