To the mayor’s surprise, Gov. Scott directs state police to patrol Burlington

State police troopers will again patrol downtown Burlington after a directive from Gov. Phil Scott that caught the city’s mayor off guard. 

The governor directed state police to patrol the Queen City after having conversations with community and business leaders who “voiced concerns about public safety,” according to Amanda Wheeler, Scott’s spokesperson. 

Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak announced the change in a Tuesday mass email update from her office. 

“I wanted to share some news that came to my attention yesterday: the Governor has directed the Vermont State Police to have a patrol presence in Downtown Burlington to help supplement the work of the Burlington Police Department,” Mulvaney-Stanak said in her email. 

The news wasn’t brought to her directly, she said. 

And while it was “unfortunate” that Scott didn’t directly communicate with her office about the effort, she said, she welcomes any state efforts to help make Burlington safer. State police were expected to patrol the city from July 29 through mid-August, Mulvaney-Stanak said in the email. The mayor declined to provide additional comment on the situation, according to her chief of staff. 

Wheeler said the governor’s decision comes at an important time, with the state set to host a gathering of New England governors and Canadian premiers and a conference for insurance professionals, and as students at the University of Vermont return to campus to start the fall semester. 

“This is nothing more than the Governor wanting to make sure Burlington is safe for residents and visitors, despite others framing this as a political issue,” Wheeler said in an email. 

The governor’s directive to state police comes about a week after Democrats on the Burlington City Council announced they would put forward a resolution to crack down on public drug use and homeless encampments, according to Seven Days. That resolution calls for increasing police presence downtown and changing the city’s zoning regulations to require more public input before opening resources for drug users, like the city’s needle exchange or proposed overdose prevention center. 

Mulvaney-Stanak, a Progressive, said in a press release that the resolution “does little to set a tone of collaboration, nor does it introduce new ideas.” 

In a mass email the following day, Mulvaney-Stanak said the city has made progress on public safety since she took office in April 2024, even if it’s incremental. She pointed to city data showing that in 2025 violent crimes, particularly homicides, in the city were down, along with retail theft, car thefts and burglaries. 

Last summer, Mulvaney-Stanak accused the Republican governor of not doing enough to help Burlington respond to homelessness and public drug use. Then, Scott rolled out a plan last fall designed to address public safety concerns in the city. The plan funneled state dollars toward social services, court resources and policing in the Queen City for a few months. 

After the program ended over the winter, state officials largely celebrated the initiative as a success. 

In her email Tuesday, Mulvaney-Stanak said she is interested in restarting the public safety initiatives that saw statewide investment last fall. Scott has expressed willingness to meet again with stakeholders to follow up on last year’s work, Wheeler said. 

This time around, Mulvaney-Stanak said she wants to add one more piece to the plan: “creating a humane state-level response to our homelessness crisis.” 

Read the story on VTDigger here: To the mayor’s surprise, Gov. Scott directs state police to patrol Burlington.