BRATTLEBORO-The newly formed Windham County Law Enforcement Governance Council convened for its inaugural meeting Aug. 7, ready to tackle how the Windham County Sheriff’s Office should provide collective policing for rural towns that lack their own police departments.
Selectboards from the initial nine participating towns opted into the pilot program. At the hybrid in-person and online meeting, members elected leadership, discussed their towns’ needs and expectations, and set initial goals.
Towns in Vermont provide law enforcement by relying on the state police, establishing their own police departments, electing or appointing constables, sharing services with a neighboring town, or contracting with their county’s sheriff department.
Currently, 15 Windham County municipalities have their own contracts with the WCSO.
Council members noted that creating municipal police departments would be cost-prohibitive for most towns. However, towns still face challenges such as inconsistent police coverage, insufficient traffic enforcement, concerns about responses to domestic violence or mental health crises, safety risks for emergency responders, and shifting needs in communities with many second-home or seasonal residents.
David Bemis from Athens said he understood that the state police can’t always respond quickly. The state police barracks in Westminster is stretched thin with a handful of troopers, he said.
“They certainly can’t do proactive things in our town like slowing speeders down or house checks, things like that,” he said.
Katy Johnson-Aplin from Newfane recalled that growing up in a rural area often meant police were too far away to help.
“And having grown up like that, we almost never call the police,” she said. “There is no reason to call the police, not for anything, unless it was a life-or-death emergency, where somebody’s trying to break down the door — and I think that this opportunity for our town means that there will be more presence, quicker response times.”
Robert Brooks from Jamaica added that he hopes his town can retain its productive relationship with the WCSO. According to the town’s website, Jamaica has contracted with WCSO since at least 2025.
He noted the town’s population is shifting from mostly working-class residents. About 60% to 70% of Jamaica’s Grand List — its total value of taxable properties — now includes more second homes, resulting in more vacant properties and fewer full-time residents.
“I would like to explore how we can maintain the wonderful service and our place within the bigger picture, because we’re also a smaller town compared to a Putney or, you know, most other towns,” he said.
At future meetings, the council intends to review a draft set of shared principles and develop bylaws.
Council members set a goal to launch the regional policing service by July 1, 2027, requiring a working service budget by Nov. 1, 2026.
The aggressive timeline is necessary because participating towns must present the program and budget to voters at Town Meeting in March. Therefore, the council aims to submit its budget this fall while towns are developing their fiscal year 2028 budgets.
Anderson said he sees the pilot program, established by a new state statute, as a “field study.”
“We are attempting to answer questions that have been researched and studied by the Legislature for decades on implementing a service that is shared by many, that benefits many, and is cheaper than doing it by ourselves,” he said.
The sheriff said he has heard the stories from people in the county’s more rural towns who default to calling neighbors in an emergency instead of the police. He recognizes that part of this is a result of gaps in the public safety system. What he worries about, however, is that in place of calling 911, people will resort to a doorbell camera and a shotgun.
He presented a pilot program to the Legislature earlier this year that resulted in the eight-year pilot, Act 104, which set up the Law Enforcement Governance Council.
Meeting facilitator and executive director of the Windham Regional Commission, Chris Campany, said, “I really hope this [pilot] succeeds because I think it’ll be very beneficial to everybody involved, especially the towns and the people who live here.”
Selectboard members from nine towns making up the council are David Bemis, of Athens; John Gregory, of Grafton (Cathy Siano-Goodwin attended the Aug. 7 meeting as proxy); Tara Cheney, of Guilford; Robert Brooks, of Jamaica; James Ameden, of Londonderry; Kate Kirkwood, of Marlboro; Katy Johnson-Aplin, of Newfane; Aileen Tulloch, of Putney; and Jean Carr, of Vernon.
The group elected Johnson-Aplin, chair; Cheney, vice-chair, and Tulloch, secretary-treasurer, .
Beginning Sept. 2, the council will meet every Wednesday in September at 4 p.m. Check windhamcountyvt.gov/regionalpolicing for an updated meeting schedule or to follow the council’s work.
A version of this story appeared in The Deerfield Valley News, The Commons’ sister newspaper.
This News item by Olga Peters originally appeared in The Deerfield Valley News and was republished in The Commons with permission.