I get why many Norwich residents are clamoring for beefing up the town’s police force. It’s difficult to sleep at night knowing that after more than a year — 57 weeks to be precise — Ruby, the chicken-killing dog, is still on the loose.
With a new chief in town, it’s time to make Norwich’s chicken coops safe again. And if that requires hiring two, three or even four more officers, so be it.
What’s an additional $240,000 in the police budget — as Chief Wade Cochran is proposing — for one of Vermont’s wealthiest towns?
It’s chicken feed.
Having more armed cops to keep the peace might also allow the Norwich Selectboard to come out of hiding. With the coronavirus pandemic seemingly manageable, elected officials in other Upper Valley communities returned to in-person meetings months ago. But Norwich’s five Selectboard members continue to meet remotely.
After watching Wednesday’s meeting via Zoom, I can’t blame board members for wanting to keep their distance from a segment of the town’s upper crust who think they’re living in Greenwich North.
They call themselves Stand Up for Norwich, but I’m not sure what they stand for. Unless it’s a belief that having more cops will protect them from suspicious-looking riffraff. Clearly, anyone who drives through town with a broken muffler must be up to no good.
The community-action group, which has more than 100 members, was formed out of concern about “vanishing safety services in town,” co-founder Omer Trajman said at Wednesday’s board meeting.
“In the last nine months, unfortunately we have suffered the consequences of what happens when police are not available to help us,” added Manu Tesone, the group’s other co-founder.
I’m not sure what Tesone is referring to — other than a significant drop in traffic tickets and less fine money for the town. Scanning the department’s recent monthly reports to the Selectboard, I didn’t find evidence that Norwich is experiencing a major crime wave.
Norwich has been down to one full-time officer with backup from Vermont State Police since Simon Keeling abruptly resigned in June and a patrol officer left shortly thereafter for another job. Apparently, Keeling didn’t see eye-to-eye with then-Town Manager Rod Francis and the Selectboard about how many cops are necessary in a town with three stop lights. I’ve lived in Norwich for 25 years, but unlike the Stand Up folks, I don’t see a reduced police presence as endangering public safety. Then again, I don’t own any chickens.
This isn’t the first time — and I’m guessing it won’t be the last — that Norwich residents have debated what’s too much or not enough policing for a small Vermont town. (Hartland, which has roughly the same population as Norwich, doesn’t have a police department.)
In 2006, I wrote about an out-of-town trucker who was stopped by Norwich police en route to delivering sawdust to a dairy farm on Turnpike Road.
A Norwich officer, utilizing the department’s new portable scale, issued the trucker a $11,550 ticket for carrying an overweight load during mud season.
The late Andy Sigler, who started the nonprofit farm and had deep pockets, hired Norwich attorney Geoffrey Vitt to fight the ticket on the trucker’s behalf. At a traffic court hearing in White River Junction, the ticket was reduced to $56.
After a vocal group of Norwich residents argued the town suffered from overzealous policing, the Selectboard sold the truck scale. The board, acting on the wishes of Town Meeting voters, also eliminated the position in the police department responsible for enforcing restrictions on overweight trucks.
Judging from the law-and-order crowd that spoke at Wednesday’s meeting, I’m not sure either of those things would happen today. “Why is it bad that a very small-town police force spend a lot of time on traffic issues?” resident Leslie Wells asked, rhetorically. It “actively discourages criminal behavior,” she added.
Cochran, who has only been on the job for two months, assured me that he’s not looking to create a “huge police force.”
He’s asking for two additional patrol officers, a sergeant and a community safety officer, who would handle outreach, along with patrol duties. Cochran estimates a department with six officers, including himself, would cost taxpayers $725,000 in wages and benefits next year.
While I don’t see the need for six officers in a community with 3,700 residents, Cochran and Stand Up for Norwich are right about one thing: To attract top candidates, the town must increase wages. Cochran is recommending a starting pay of $60,000 a year for new officers, which sounds reasonable, particularly since his goal is to hire cops with college degrees.
Cochran, who grew up in northern Vermont, has worked in law enforcement for 20 years. Much of his time has been with the Montpelier department. He’s also had stints with the Vermont Drug Task Force and a FBI task force that investigates violent crimes.
At 47, Cochran told me that he was looking to move up to a chief’s position. He liked the idea of working in a small town and the challenge of rebuilding a “decimated” department, as Wells described it at Wednesday’s meeting.
I asked Cochran how he weathered last weekend’s storm that resulted in lengthy power outages across much of Norwich.
“I wasn’t called,” he said.
Huh?
Cochran lives outside the Upper Valley. In his part of Vermont, the storm was nothing out of the ordinary. “My lights flickered once,” he said.
As unbelievable as it sounds, Norwich officials didn’t call Cochran or Anna Ingraham, the department’s only full-time patrol officer, to help with road closings and check on older residents.
Talk about a lack of communication.
“The problem has been rectified,” Cochran told me. “If there’s a situation in town, I want to be there.”
Take heed, Ruby.
Jim Kenyon can be reached at jkenyon@vnews.com.
