In 2001, a police/fire committee recommended expanding the police district south to include the businesses on Beanville Road, and Shaw’s plaza. A total of roughly 150 residents would have been required to pay tax for police services in the newly expanded district. However, at town meeting, 12 residents of the proposed expanded district were unanimous in voting no and the expansion was defeated. It is not clear from the Herald article why 12 notes were able to defeat a vote affecting 150 people. The article does not say how many votes were in favor of the expansion.
(Source: https://www.ourherald.com/articles/police-district-wont-be-expanding-in-randolph/
In 2005, a police services committee was created to study the issue and make recommendations, very similar to our current committee. However, the expansion was again defeated by voters.
(Source: https://www.ourherald.com/articles/citizens-disagree-on-police-district/)
In 2006, town meeting was largely devoted to discussion of the police district expansion. There was an informal vote taken, with the results showing “most people wanted some expansion of the police district—either to include the whole town or just the adjacent commercial properties. They also want the town as a whole to be able to vote on it.”
(Source: https://www.ourherald.com/articles/randolph-meeting-lasts-3-hours/)
The police budget was defeated twice in 2006, in part due to the anger and resentment of village taxpayers that Randolph Police were responding to calls outside of the village. A police committee advising the selectboard at the time recommended that the Randolph Police be forbidden from responding to calls outside the village district, except in cases of immediate risk of life and death. The police force at the time consisted of 6 full time officers. The revised budget with 5 officers was once again rejected after the budget committee recommended voting no to protest the village paying for police services.
(Source: https://www.ourherald.com/articles/whats-the-future/)
In 2007, the issue was raised and a police advisory committee was formed to make recommendations. Once again, the idea of expanding the district to cover the entire town was debated after the police department complained that officer salaries were too low to retain qualified personnel. The argument was the village alone cannot afford to pay competitive salaries but this could be affordable if the entire town paid for it.
During the 2007 debates, a petition was created by Joe Voci and signed by 164 residents opposed to any expansion of the police district. The petition requested the selectboard refuse to consider any expansion unless the expansion was requested by town residents - the people who would be subject to new taxes to pay for it. Of course, those outside of the village district ultimately refused to expand the district.
(Source: https://www.ourherald.com/articles/selex-wont-act-on-police-petition/)
In July, 2018, following the resignation of Chief Brunelle after 11 months on the job, the selectboard formed an ad-hoc committee to “explore options about the future of policing in downtown, including questions about whether to expand the downtown police district or eliminate the department altogether.”
“There has been a lot of discussions over the years about whether the current force was sized correctly,” wrote selectboard chair Trini Brassard in an email on Tuesday, outlining long-standing questions about whether “the services provided were correct and even if the services should be expanded across the town.”
(Source: https://www.ourherald.com/articles/brunelle-resigns/)
The article states the department lost 4 of 5 officers and began contracting for police services with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department after the 5th officer resigned in September, 2018. The OCSD contract was for 120 hours per week, equivalent to 3 full-time officers working full-time. This substantially reduced the cost of police coverage for the next few years, until the OCSD contract was canceled in 2023.
The OCSD reported responding to 300 calls from July - September 2018, and making approximately 20-25 arrests in the same period. That translates to roughly 1,200 calls and 100 arrests per year. At the time, Randolph appeared to have lots of options, as “Col. Birmingham has indicated VSP’s willingness to provide Randolph with an offer similar to the one presented to Waterbury.” It appears Randolph also had a contract with OCSD to patrol town roads, as well as provide dispatch services for the fire department.
(Source: https://www.ourherald.com/articles/cop-committee-looks-at-options-will-listen-to-public-next-friday/)
The committee ultimately decided to recommend continuing to provide coverage with OCSD, primarily because OCSD was providing deputies for 120 hours per week, equivalent to 3 full-time officers, compared with 5-6 officers under the former RPD. The committee also determined that Randolph has a “very, very, very low crime rate” which explains why the village doesn’t need 5-6 full-time officers. This also reduced the police budget in half, pleasing resident taxpayers and putting the issue aside until the OCSD contract was canceled.
(Source: https://www.ourherald.com/articles/randolph-selex-hear-police-advice-deal-with-appointments-too/)
In July, 2020 Sheriff Bohnyak reported deputies “in the last year of policing in the Randolph police district, officers stopped over 600 vehicles, issued 120 tickets, wrote over 500 warnings, arrested 49 people (mostly for driving offenses), and performed 175 citizen assists, as well as 114 agency assists.” The number of incidents to which they responded was not specified. This data correlates with the reduced activity reported by RPD during 2023.
Note: The village does not have the criminal activity that used to exist 30 years ago, nor does it have the business that was in part responsible for the activity. That is why 3 full time deputies with the OCSD provided sufficient coverage. Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to staff a full time department with only 3 officers. It is also more costly due to economies of scale, as well as severe inflation in the cost of law enforcement, over and above the official rate of inflation.
For more information, see here:
https://randolphpoliceservicesdebate.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-herald-randolph-police-committee.html
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| Town of Randolph, VT - Village Police District (shaded green) |
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