BRATTLEBORO-When local police studied the nearly 29,000 calls they've received in the past three years, they discovered the 20 people most cited for problems accounted for 1,700 - or 6% - of all complaints.
That was only the first surprise.
Most calls about the top 20 didn't involve criminal behavior, but disorderly conduct, disputes, and disturbances often linked to alcohol and drug use or mental health issues, municipal statistics show.
But when authorities identified the offenders to area social service agencies, both groups saw that many on the list already faced no-trespass notices at the programs that could help them.
"Jaws dropped," Jim Baker, a consultant for a state public safety enhancement initiative, recounted at a recent public meeting. "The providers recognized those folks and came to the realization that if they're falling through the cracks in their system, who ends up dealing with them?"
The answer: Police, as confirmed by a 16% rise in dispatch calls.
That's why the state is helping local leaders study and share information in Brattleboro - as well as in Bennington and Springfield - so authorities and agencies can collaborate on how to address disorderly conduct among the most-cited offenders.
"The 20 people that are consuming a lot of resources clearly need some, but they're not getting the right ones," Brattleboro Assistant Police Chief Jeremy Evans recently told the Selectboard. "We're trying to get everything we have out to the service providers so that they can use that data to inform their decision-making."
'Many causes and impacts'
Brattleboro isn't alone in struggling to keep up. But it's further ahead in its state-supported data analysis, which has revealed an increase in all police calls as well as reports of serious crimes, with one in three of the latter offenses involving drugs or alcohol.
"Compared to communities your size, you are consistently higher," Baker, former commander of the Vermont State Police and one-time Rutland City police chief, recently told local leaders of their figures.
A study by the Vermont nonprofit Crime Research Group shows Brattleboro police are dispatched most often to the local Quality Inn, where the state is housing people otherwise without shelter (authorities received 181 calls there in the first half of this year), as well as to such downtown locations as the Whetstone Path park (112 calls so far in 2024), the Groundworks Collaborative shelter (93), and the Brattleboro Transportation Center parking garage on Flat Street (57).
"The disorder we are witnessing, especially in our downtown area, has many causes and impacts," Evans wrote the Selectboard in a recent memorandum. "Not all of these are criminal in nature."
In the case of people receiving no-trespass notices, offenders are barred from locations if their actions "significantly disrupt the ability to provide services," the assistant police chief said in an interview.
"You have a lot of people looking for help," Evans said, "but there's a small percentage that, for whatever reason, are unable or unwilling to accept it."
According to police, the Brattleboro individual most reported (identified only as someone cited in 63 calls for the first half of this year) was acting criminally for just 14% of them. Authorities believe social services could help with other behavioral issues, although they note the person faces no-trespass notices at 19 locations.
"Unfortunately, many of those are providers," Evans said, "which creates a huge, huge problem."
'Our own boundaries'
"This is something that we see in a lot of different jurisdictions," Robin Joy, the Crime Research Group's statistical director, told local leaders at another meeting.
According to Joy, Brattleboro police calls vary from assaults (1%) to disorderly conduct (65%).
"This is where the community service providers can really help," she said of the latter percentage.
But that's challenging when "the No. 1 thing" the top 20 people are arrested for is trespassing at those places, Joy added.
Social service agencies, for their part, are feeling pulled in different directions. Groundworks Collaborative, for example, helps local people without permanent housing. Its outreach team reports contact with 159 such individuals so far this year.
But the nonprofit had to strengthen its rules against threatening behavior after the 2023 killing of its shelter coordinator, allegedly by a client who is now in prison and awaiting trial on charges of first-degree murder.
"We need to consider our own boundaries around increasing safety and reducing risks," Groundworks Executive Director Libby Bennett said upon this April's first anniversary of the death. "We all understand we're upholding these out of respect for each other."
Bennett was one of several social service leaders to attend the Sept. 3 Selectboard meeting. Those who spoke said providers and police had yet to find an answer to the no-trespass question, although all expressed hope they could figure out ways to collaborate.
"All of us area agencies, we are doing everything humanly possible that we can do," said Christine Allen, executive director of Turning Point of Windham County. "We are so straight out, working our tails off - and we can't do this without the police."
'The first step'
Authorities have met with local agencies to confidentially share the names of the most-cited offenders.
"It was an epiphany," Baker said. "When you have 20 people who account for some 5% of calls for service and they're getting passed from one agency to another, there's not a level of accountability that needs to happen."
Daniel Quipp attended the providers' meeting as chair of the Selectboard and as a staff member of the antipoverty agency Southeastern Vermont Community Action.
"We were looking at real information that made us have some quite difficult conversations," Quipp said following the session.
"Here's the name of this person who has trespassed at this place, this place, this place, this place, this place, and we know that they need these kinds of services. What can we do as a group of people who are working together to try to make a better, safer Brattleboro to actually meet that person's needs?"
Sharing information, Baker said, "is the first step in holding each other accountable for better outcomes."
To that end, the Brattleboro Police Department is creating a hotspot evaluation and analysis team to extend "in-depth data related to trends, problem locations, safety concerns, and high-volume users of town services," Evans said in his memo.
"It is our hope that this data will provide organizations with more knowledge about where and when their services might be most effectively directed and promote discussion on how to best address concerns," he wrote.
State consultants have urged authorities and agencies to expand their efforts regionally, noting that one of Brattleboro's most-cited individuals also appears on police call logs in Bennington and Springfield.
"This points to a need," Joy said, "to collaborate beyond your borders."
This News item by Kevin O'Connor originally appeared in VTDigger and was republished in The Commons with permission.