money Burlington Police Department's budget request gives glimpse at hiring plans
Correction: Community support liaisons at the Burlington Police Department focus on social-service related calls. The position was misnamed in an earlier version of the story.
Burlington Police Department is asking the city's elected officials to approve a budget of more than $17 million for fiscal year 2023, which includes funds that the agency says will help it rebuild after two years of diminishing ranks.
The department's budget makes up about 18% of the city's proposed total $95.5 million request.
Two years ago, Burlington's police budget garnered intense scrutiny by racial justice advocates and Progressive city councilors. The City Council ultimately voted to lower the number of police officers in 2020 to free up money for social service-focused police personnel. The following year, on the advice of consultants who conducted an operational assessment, the Council voted to restore most of the positions, authorizing 87 officers.
The proposed police budget this year focuses on recruiting new officers to refill the department's ranks and retaining its current officers. As of May 2022, the department had 66 officers and 21 vacant positions. In the last year, the department also hired seven community service officers and three social service-focused community support liaisons.
Here's what to know about Burlington Police Department's proposed budget for the 2023 fiscal year.
See also: Why Burlington police plan to be more visible downtown this summer, and what to expect.
Burlington Police plan to use one-time funds for recruitment and marketing.
The Burlington Police Department wants to try to rebuild its ranks to 85 by July 1, 2025. During the budget presentation, Acting Chief Jon Murad put forth a plan for achieving that goal, which uses a combination of unspent funds from the 2022 fiscal year and pandemic relief money earmarked for recruitment efforts.
The proposed spending includes:
$375,000 for hiring bonuses, using pandemic relief money.
$50,000 for housing incentives through a grant from the Queen City Police Foundation.
Child care and educational incentives, which are still being calculated.
Hiring a recruitment firm and undertaking an advertisement campaign using unspent 2022 fiscal year money. Estimates for these efforts are still being formed.
The department is asking for money for new positions.
The budget includes salaries for two new positions:
A public information officer and community engagement coordinator, who would handle media requests and share information with the public about the department. The salary is estimated at about $65,000.
A recruitment coordinator who would search for diverse candidates for police officer positions and work with the recruitment firm on a plan for attracting officers to the department. The salary is also estimated to be about $65,000.
The budget would also expand the use of unarmed staff.
Community service officers and community support liaisons were new positions created in the effort to defund the police, and the department plans to expand that program in fiscal year 2023. These positions are all unarmed, non-police personnel who deal with non-emergency calls and social service issues that result in low-level crimes.
The department is asking to expand the number of community service officers to 10 from six full-year and four partial year personnel. The budget also proposes expanding the number of community support liaisons from three to five plus a supervisor.
Burlington's Board of Finance is finalizing the city's proposed budget for fiscal year 2023 before presenting the financial plan to the entire City Council in the next few weeks. The City Council will have final say on the budget before funds are approved.
Contact Elizabeth Murray at 802-310-8585 or emurray@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizMurrayBFP.
This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Burlington Police Department budget: 3 things to know about proposal
