 Welcome everyone, we're incredibly lucky to have our mayor with us here today and he will begin with some opening remarks. Thank you chief, good afternoon everyone, thank you all for coming and being part of this important event, it's great to have a number of city councillors here with us this afternoon, councillors Shannon and Barlow and Hannah King, it's great to have all of you here. Oh and there you are too, Councillor Bergman, thank you, I didn't see you back there. And Councillor Carpenter, I was, you know, making the first mistake of politicians to help people out like this. Thank you all for being here. It's an honor to be at One North Avenue again to acknowledge the hard work of the men and women of this department and to do this at what will be the last swearing-in ceremony as your mayor. As I prepare to conclude my service to the City of Burlington, I am very excited to be welcoming so many people into the department and seeing other longtime members of the Burlington Police Department stepping into new leadership roles. It makes me very confident and positive that this department is on the right trajectory. It's because of your continued commitment to serve and to protect our community that our rebuilding plan, which we have been working hard at for a couple years now, will succeed. With each swearing-in ceremony over the last three years, I've become more excited about the future of the department. Each round of promotions and each new class of recruits exhibits a phenomenal level of professionalism, a diversity of skills and attitudes, and an undeniable quality of character. Every day the BPD exemplifies more and more the inclusive and caring spirit of the Burlington community. This is a special day for many folks in this room, and we're going to have a chance to recognize each of you individually. I don't think I can, but I do want to make a special recognition for the promotion of Lacey Ann Smith today to the Assistant Director of CAPE. This is really an important milestone in the transformation and expansion of the Burlington Police Department. Never before have we had a Deputy Chief-level professional serving in this building. Lacey, you've certainly earned it through your service to this city and to this department over the years. I'm very proud to have served with you and excited for your promotion today. Over a short period of time in the face of major public safety challenges, we have together built new, important, and innovative community resources in the growing crisis assessment and intervention programs, and there are now 10 professionals with room to grow to 14 by the next year within this division, and this includes the CARES team, which is soon to launch. This police department is truly exceptional and is better and stronger for having navigated the many challenges of the last four years. I'm not sure it feels every day like we're stronger, but we're on the way. I'm proud of each of you for your accomplishments and grateful to all of you who have chosen to grow your career here. This special community of Burlington trusts you to serve them, to respond to crises, to keep our great public spaces safe for everyone to enjoy, to help our small businesses thrive, and to reach out a hand to a neighbor in need. For those of you who will be receiving a promotion or taking the oath of service for the first time, I hope you will find, as I have, that serving the city of Burlington and its people is the opportunity of a lifetime. Good luck to you all. Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor. You know, for four consecutive terms, the longest for any mayor in our city's history, you have supported and resourced the Burlington Police Department, and in my four years as chief, I've been tremendously, tremendously grateful to know that you lead this city. And I hope that this won't be the last time that we see you here at these ceremonies because you are always welcome here. And today, everyone is welcome too. And I welcome our newest police commissioner. I welcome our city counselors. I welcome agency partners. I welcome the media here today. And I welcome our teammates, those who are already here and give to the city every single day and those who are joining the team. And finally, I welcome families because I know how much family members share the burden of this unique and challenging, but very rewarding profession. When your loved ones work holidays and overtime and emergencies, you may not clock in, but you're affected too. And why do we put up with all that? Why do we do all that? It's because this work matters. You will not find a profession that matters more. When a records clerk helps someone navigate the paperwork after a theft, when a dispatcher takes a call from a desperate neighbor, when a CSO arrives at a car crash and helps that person understand what's happened, when a CSL talks to a family after an overdose, and when a cop wades into chaos and fear and draws out order and safety, it matters. And that's why we are working so hard to rebuild and to grow. And why we're seeing terrific success thanks in no small part to our terrific recruitment officer, Carolyn Irwin, and our recruitment coordinator on Hadbajwa. But rebuilding is an all hands on deck effort and everyone in this agency is an ambassador for it. We're grateful too to the mayor and the city council for their support with regard to our contract and budget needs. Rebuilding means new people. It means good people, committed people, people who are possessed of cardinal virtues and that's courage and moderation and a sense of justice and a common sense. So with that said, let us meet the people who are rebuilding because rebuilding is people. And we'll start with those who are being promoted to new responsibilities in this important profession and then we'll move on to those who are joining this profession for the first time. So we'll start with sworn promotions. Police officers are called sworn employees because they alone swear an oath of office under pains and penalties of perjury. This is required because there are very specific powers and authorities that conferred upon them by the state of Vermont. And so our first promoter is Sergeant John Stoughton. Deputy Chief Operations Wade Labreck is going to introduce Sergeant Stoughton. DC Labreck is celebrating his 23rd year with the department this month and is our most tenured officer. So if there's anyone who knows what this profession means, it's him. Thank you Chief. So have you up here John so you can stare at everybody while I talk about you. Fantastic. It's great. So John Stoughton started with the Burlington Police Department in August of 2008 and for the next 13 years John served this department with dedication and the city as well with devotion and dedication. He served as a patrol officer. He was a rad instructor which actually garnered very many kudos that I saw in his performance file. And he was ultimately promoted to a detective where he worked over there until 2021 where he moved on to a state job. And a chance meeting last fall over near recruitment, John was still working for us doing background investigations trying to help us get the officers that we were hiring in the pipeline and getting them down the road so we could actually hire and send them to the academy. So he was helping out quite a bit with that and I saw him in Carolyn's office and I just you know I can never help but I was like hey you know we're still hiring. He didn't say no. So that led to several conversations. Really it was like fly fishing like I think I set the hook a little bit like I was like most people are like oh good thanks. So you know we sat down and had a couple conversations about it and you know John let me know that while he had moved on to another job and this is a quote his heart really had never left BPD. And that to me like spoke volumes. I let him know I was very happy that he would consider returning to the Burlington Police Department and that I also let him know that I envisioned his role here if he came back would be in a supervisory role. Now John is a very dedicated father and family man and he told me straight out that you know he respected that and that he needed to speak to his family his wife and his kids about coming back to BPD and working here as a supervisor and I you know I totally respected that. He needed to discuss that with his family before he made that type of decision. So while he spoke with his family I actually went around BPD because bringing someone back who was a detective and well liked but bringing him back in a supervisor position kind of wonder what everybody would think about it. Needless to say I was not surprised that the feedback was extremely positive to bring John back as a leader here at BPD and officers felt he was well respected and they felt he would be an excellent supervisor. So for me it was it was a no brainer and I want to thank his family for that conversation which apparently went well. So I'm very happy that John has returned to us. He joins a cadre of supervisors sergeant lieutenants that we have here. They are the ones that are going to set the course for our department for decades to come as we rebuild. My time here is coming to a close in the next few years but I feel a sense of certainty with the supervisors that John is joining and a certainty and a relief that they will be able to guide us into the future and that this department and this city will be in excellent hands in the years to come. John if I can have you raise your right hand. Do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of sergeant for the city of Burlington and the state of Vermont on my honor I will never betray my badge my integrity my integrity my character my character for the public trust for the public trust I will always have the courage I will always have the courage to hold myself and others to hold myself and others accountable for our actions accountable for our actions I will uphold the constitution I will uphold the constitution and community I serve and community I serve I will therein I will therein do equal right and justice do equal right and justice to all men and women to all men and women to the best of my judgment and ability to the best of my judgment and ability according to according to the laws of the state and the United States of America under the pains and penalties of perjury under the pains and penalties of perjury so help me God so help me God thank you Deputy Chief Lebrecht and thank you Sargent Stoden we have two professional promoters today and they will both swear their oath together I'll ask both of them to come up please that is Lacey Smith our Assistant Director of Crisis Assessment Intervention Programs or CAPE and Shannon Trammell our Executive Manager I I cannot say enough about both of these two women I'll start with with AD CAPE Smith Lacey Smith was our Community Affairs Liaison when I first came to the Burlington Police Department in 2018 she'd been with the department for a number of years already and she was a one-woman force in the city with regard to addressing a host of issues around homelessness around substance use disorder around mental health and the chronic conditions that that sometimes creates she was a tremendous resource I saw it incredibly quickly I was told it by my predecessor's chief it was readily apparent and I said at more than one meeting that what I wanted almost more than anything else when it came to developing the capacities of this agency to respond to people in need was to clone Lacey Smith I would have loved to be able to get more Lacey Smith's and what we found when when crisis hit this agency we found an opportunity in that crisis to do just that and to create a program the community support liaison program and an entire part of the department CAPE the crisis assessment intervention programs that would in fact in a way clone what Lacey did and give Lacey assistance for a task that she had far too long taken on alone now it happened to be at the exact same time that that task turned into something that was larger than it had ever been as well we have seen an uptick in issues around mental health issue we have seen tremendous and terrible horrible upticks around substance use disorder in our community and we have seen an increase in homelessness that is unprecedented in Burlington's history and it has been only to our good luck that Lacey has been a part of the team during that period she has constantly worked to develop CAPE and the members in it she has overseen the community support liaisons as the community support supervisor and she takes this promotion today to assistant director CAPE because of the work that she's done and the incredible capability that she's demonstrated she's been an integral and supportive part of this agency through that entire time I am still grateful tremendously for her testimony in 2020 as we were wrestling with what we wanted as a community policing to be I am grateful to her on a daily basis for being a guide and a council to me I meet with her regularly I feel that in many ways Lacey you are a better angel of my nature on my shoulder guiding me towards different kinds of conclusions that I might otherwise make you are caring you are dedicated this is a person who who meets with with some of the most you know troubled and vulnerable and and needful people in our community and she meets with them as equals she meets with them as someone who is not there to judge but is there to to help and she is absolutely a benefit to this city and to this department thank you Lacey Shannon Trammell today is being appointed to executive manager Shannon makes this place run I do not believe that this department would be able to function if Shannon were to suddenly disappear on us Shannon is someone who has the acumen of a business person who has the ability to know what everyone in the department is doing to make relationships with the people in this department to recognize that it is a family as well as a workplace and to make certain that everyone in it feels supported she's an ear for people to go to she is a hand for people who need assistance or help whether that's people who are coming with questions about FMLA or how am I going to do this or how do I get the chiefs to actually understand this issue or that issue on the side she has always been that she's been doing it for far longer than this promotion recognizes and I am so grateful that we're actually able to give her now a title that is commensurate with what she's already contributed to this place now she also has to deal with with our budget and and make it at that stuff run as well events like this are our Shannon's doing our our in-house events like our award ceremony or our annual holiday party events like promotions she works with the police commission and was a routine part of making certain that that relationship functions and that those routine council hearings and commission hearings go off she really is terrific and and so there too Shannon I am just incredibly grateful every day that you're here and on this team so if you'll both raise your right hand and repeat after me I state your name do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of the office of the associate for the city of Burlington and the state of Vermont for the city of Burlington and the state of Vermont on my honor I will never betray my position my integrity my character my character or the public trust or the public trust I will always have the courage I will always have the courage to hold myself and others accountable for our actions and I will always uphold the truth and community I serve so now we move to the swearing-in of new employees these are eight members of the department in a number of positions who have joined the BPD since our last ceremony on August 3rd so some have been here for a couple months now and have been able to sort of get a sense of the place and its patterns and its paces and hopefully are still happy members of this place and some of them have joined more recently than that I will give a brief introduction to each person and I'll ask him or her to step forward at that point and then once we're done we'll administer the oath of office to all eight together so if you would please come up and join us we four on this side and four on this side that works we'll start with Troy Hughes our help desk technician Troy was born and raised in Wisconsin and he lived in Utah and Minnesota he graduated from the University of Wisconsin in Eau Claire with a BA in American Indian studies and he's three courses shy of having a second degree in history he worked for the state of Wisconsin's Department of Justice for six years before coming here and he worked in the firearms unit and their time system control center he has taken both Spanish and German at the college level he's studied Irish Russian and Scott's Gaelic for fun but his primary emphasis is Welsh and he's been studying that for approximately 14 years that is one heck of a language I watched the crown so I know it was very difficult for King Charles he has four daughters and one grandson and he is a man of a million hobbies music digital art wood stone carving fishing hunting reading and PC gaming are the primary hobbies he is as I said our help deck to our help desk technician and absolutely integral because no agency can function these days without tech so thank you Troy next we have two community support liaisons I mentioned that position briefly when I was describing what Lacey Smith does and the Cape team our community support liaisons or CSLs are in-house social workers they work in the police department and they often follow up on calls for service after police have rendered security and safety to the situation but recognize that the root causes of this or what's actually happening underneath this situation are not necessarily things that I as a police officer can address they also tackle calls for service on their own preemptively or proactively and they are follow-up for our detectives as well they deal with issues around chronic mental health around social excuse me around substance use disorder and around houselessness and our first community support liaison or CSL is Whitney Hodges Whitney grew up in northern Virginia she attended Christopher Newport University where she studied sociology and criminology and while attending school she obtained professional experience in social work by interning with intercept health which worked with elementary level at-risk youth she moved to Vermont after graduation with her rescue hound dolly for this job and she enjoys crafting and running Michael Mitchell Michael was born in op Alabama which is a town of about 6,000 people and he lived in the south for most of his life went to the University of Southern Mississippi as an undergrad and the University of Alabama as a graduate and studied library science and for the first decade of his career he worked in public and academic libraries is an avid reader as well as a fan of narrative games he does volunteer audio book narration as a hobby and his current project a project is narrating for a military history professor who writes on pop culture and history we now move on to two new community service officers CSOs community service officers are not sworn positions like police officers they're not armed like police officers but they function in certain ways to augment and help police officers they address certain quality of life issues such as noise complaints they are assistance on crashes that don't involve injury or a high level of property damage and they assist officers at scene control when we are for example tackling something unfortunate like a shooting event they are an augmentation to the force we'd always had community service officers in the Burlington Police Department but normally we only had two we're now allotted for 11 and that allows us to put three on each shift each day shift and on each evening shift a very very helpful position we've also seen a lot of our community service officers move from that position into the policing role and that too is very fortunate for us to be able to have a place where people can come aboard understand the agency and its culture and start to feel whether or not this city and this department is for them and then perhaps move on to a policing role but the CSO role in and of itself is an important one that is a major part of how we currently operate our first community service officer or CSO is Alex Hisong while originally from Michigan Alex was primarily raised in Massachusetts he graduated from the University of Vermont with a degree in history that's another history buff and a minor in business administration and after graduation he decided to stay in Burlington and he lives in the Old North End before working as a CSO he worked as an urban park ranger for the Burlington Parks Recreation and Waterfront Department and in his spare time he enjoys skiing camping and hiking and our next CSO is Kyler or Kyler was born in Montana but he grew up in Asheville North Carolina studied criminology in high school at the Asheville Buncom Technical Institute did I get that right? Okay great and moved to Vermont with hopes of forwarding his career in public safety spends a lot of time outdoors with his dog Ozzie and we're teaching him how himself had a code software so you can maybe you know get a little assistance we have some terrific software folks here both in Troy and in Cole Hayes. Thank you for joining us. Next we have our emergency communications specialists or ECS or more commonly known as dispatch these are the folks that take the calls so there are so many roles in a police department that's going to function so many parts to what we do and it is not merely those who are in uniform and out on the street although they may be the most forward-facing and the most obvious component of it but nothing starts without a call to dispatch our dispatchers are an incredibly important part of the agency and for a long time for several years in the past we did not have enough of them we got down to the point where a room that is our emergency communications center or ECC which is supposed to have at least 12 people and is currently thankfully allotted for 14 thanks to the mayor only had four full-time employees in that room it was not a place that was going to be able to do what it needed to do for public safety we're regrowing we're up at nine and we're getting bigger and thanks that is in part thanks to new employees such as these ECS's who join us today Robert beermeister Rob was a dispatcher for Morris County New Jersey for two and a half years before joining our team here in September as an ECS and prior to that he was a security dispatcher for Novartis Pharmaceuticals enjoys being outdoors and he grew up spending the summers at his family's farm in Hubbardton Vermont at Hubbard in the site of the only I believe battle in Vermont that actually took place on Vermont soil and a little bit of history since we have all these history buffs up here you're a half mile from the site all right Bennington claims it but it didn't happen in Bennington happened in New York so Hubbardton all right Rob is excited to start this chapter of his life and create new experiences while working for the Burlington Police Department Zachary Bean Zachary's from the Northeast Kingdom in the St. John'sbury area he went to St. John'sbury Academy but graduated from the Linden Institute and currently he lives in the Old North End with his fiance Amanda their dog Bear and two cats Ralphie and Lady in his spare time he really likes to play golf tennis and snowboard in the winter and last but not least for our professional employees today we have a records clerk records is how a police department runs everything that we do has to be written down and recorded or as the saying goes it didn't happen so the amount of paperwork that we have is extraordinary certainly employees feel it but it all goes to records where it has to be collated and stored and properly accounted for and then given out to the public when they need it Lillian Shaw is our new records clerk Lillian was born and raised in Burlington Vermont she graduated from Elon University in May of 2023 with a BA in sociology and minors in criminal justice and art she did a semester abroad in Florence Italy during her junior year of college she worked for a long time at the spot in Burlington six years as a server and was also a counselor at Camp Kiniaya in Colchester Vermont she has two rescue dogs named Luna and Luigi and in her spare time she enjoys skiing hiking and painting with acrylics so I will now administer the oh oh Brian's gonna do it my apologies deputy chief Brian Labarge is our deputy chief of administration so the professional positions are all overseen by deputy chief Labarge as is our detective bureau you saw this where the office of the office of the city of Burlington and the state of Vermont on my honor I will never betray my position my integrity my character my character or the public trust or the public trust I will I will always have the courage I will always have the courage to hold myself and others accountable for our actions for our actions I will always uphold the truth I will always uphold the truth and the community I serve and the community I serve congratulations thank you we were giving out challenge coins to each of our new employees these are something that the public safety professions and military professions and others exchange and so now we move to our new police officer and I would ask our probationary police officer to come up and join me Kayla Grant this is Kayla Grant and this new police recruit is about to embark on 16 weeks of academy training she'll learn about community policing and fair and impartial policing she'll learn about addressing mental health crises she'll get training in the use of force and firearms and fingerprinting and forensics and those are just the f's there's also a precision driving and domestic violence and drug recognition and motor vehicle law and counterterrorism and interview and interrogation and juvenile law and and and it's a very lot but the academy is just a piece and when we get you back we will expose you to how Burlington does policing and I think it is differently and I believe better you'll have at least 580 hours of field training with experienced officers because by volume and variety the men and women of this agency do more and see more than those of any other agency in the state we're gonna expect a lot of you but I'm confident that you're gonna be delivered able to deliver Kayla Grant whose badge number will be 423 she grew up in California and competed competitively in running until her sophomore year of college she attended the prep school at West Point and made it through that program before attending and transferring to Sacred Heart University where she majored in psychology and minored in criminal justice so I'm certain that the paramilitary aspects of our police academy the Vermont police academy in Pittsburgh will be nothing to you after West Point since graduating she has worked in caregiving at memory care and senior living facilities and the patients that a job like that can breed I'm certain will do her well as an officer her favorite pastimes include outdoor adventures with her two dogs being around animals or watching true crime documentaries she's excited for this new adventure and her life in Vermont we raise your right hand and repeat after me I state your name I kill Grant do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute that I will faithfully ask execute the office of the office of probationary police officer probationary police officer for the city of Burlington for the city of Burlington and the state of Vermont and the state of Vermont on my honor on my honor I will never betray my badge I'll never betray my badge my integrity my integrity my character my character or the public trust or the public trust I will always have the courage I'll always have the courage to hold myself and others to hold myself and others accountable for our actions accountable for our actions I will always uphold the Constitution I'll always uphold the Constitution and community I serve and community I serve I will therein do equal right injustice oh therein do equal right and justice to all men and women to all men and women to the best of my judgments and ability to the best of my judgment and ability according to the laws of this state the laws of this state and the United States of America and the United States of America under the pains and penalties of perjury under the pains and penalty of jury congratulations earlier I mentioned the cardinal virtues courage and moderation a sense of justice and common sense and I believe they are more important than ever and we can use those virtues to face our challenges and achieve our goal of keeping people safe by preventing and responding to crime and disorder with and for our neighbors we can make our neighbors safer and we can make our department the best in Vermont I believe that we already have the best trained most experienced officers so for our new employees people are looking to you people in the department they're looking to you and our community has needs and expectations our city needs to be safe communities need to be safe in order to have all the promises that America delivers their expectations have been clear to we have to treat everyone fairly and compassionately and we have to do so competently I often use the word neighbors rather than citizens or civilians because as Robert Peale said the police are the public and the public are the police cop and community have to be one and the same and all of our employees have heard me speak and will probably roll their eyes about living up to our country's words on paper what America says on paper is what the Declaration of Independence announced that all men are created equal and endowed with unalienable rights like life liberty and the pursuit of happiness what America said on paper is what our Constitution promises in its very opening words that we establish justice and ensure domestic tranquility and promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty and none of this is impossible is possible without public safety none of it is possible without the work that the men and women inside this agency do every single day but putting the words on paper wasn't the end of the effort and it was just a beginning we have to work every single day to achieve those words and to mention history again today is the first day of Black History Month and one thing we can't dismiss is that those words on paper are closer for some Americans than for others our job is to strive to make those words real for all of us to make Burlington safe and fair everywhere for everyone so welcome to the best job that you will ever have welcome to camaraderie that you won't get anywhere else a job where the right mixture of compassion and accountability authority and good judgment can make a difference in people's lives and in the health of your community Burlington wants and deserves great cops and we will not we cannot compromise on those standards we have not looking at your families today all of you out there I'm confident we haven't this is a high stakes job it is a high stress job but it is a highly rewarding job and I've said it before I end most of these with this it is impossible to have a great life unless you have a meaningful life and it's very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work I can't promise you a great life but I can promise you a meaningful life because I can promise you meaningful work you are Burlington's police department and your city welcomes you to this team thank you that's it as per usual DPD of esters cake and water there is cake and water and