Police & Fire

On Thursday, October 10, 6:00-7:30 pm, the West Brattleboro Association (WBA) will hold its monthly meeting at The New England House, 254 Marlboro Road. The Association will finalize planning for their Columbus Day Weekend Chicken Barbecue on Saturday, October 12.

Fire Chief Mike Bucossi will be on hand to discuss plans for the West B fire station, which might mean a less expensive option of building a new building instead of adding on and renovating the existing one.

According to a recent report to the Brattleboro Selectboard, the Brattleboro Police are using i2 software to help predict and prevent crimes. While the police and the board may know what the software is capable of, the public hasn’t been given much information about how it is used, or what it is capable of doing.

The first thing to know about i2 is that it is a suite of software packages that can be tailored to specific uses in law enforcement, banking, defense, health care, insurance, and even retail. IBM sells custom packages and add-on functionality so users can purchase and use the tools most suited to their purposes. 

“Can the police tell us a bit more about how the new license plate reader is being used?

What data does a license plate scanner collect? How many license plate scans have been done since the Brattleboro Police purchased the scanner? How many of those were “hits” associated with crimes or wrongdoings?

Are these records stored? For how long?”

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Our license plate reader has been installed, but is not yet being used.  There were recently some changes in the law regarding their use and BPD officers have not been trained in those changes.

PRESS RELEASE On July 15, 2013 at 3:16am the Brattleboro Fire and Police Departments responded to 68 Birge St for a vehicle fire. After conducting an investigation it was deemed that this fire was an act of arson.

If anyone has any information concerning this fire, you are asked to contact Detective Eric Johnson of the Brattleboro Police at (802) 257-7946 or the VT Arson Tip Hotline at 1-800-32-ARSON (800-322-7766).

A reward is being offered for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the individual(s) involved. 

The Brattleboro Police-Fire Facility Building Committee will meet on Thursday, August 1, 2013 at 4:00pm in the Hanna Cosman meeting room at the Municipal Center.

Jan Anderson
Executive Secretary
Brattleboro Town Manager’s Office
(802) 251-8100

“How has decriminalization of marijuana impacted the department so far? Is the law clear or confusing? Have tickets for small amounts of marijuana been given out to anyone?”

Decriminalization of marijuana has not impacted the department in a meaningful way.  Officers have been trained in the new law and the various enforcement actions involved.  There have been some minor changes in the way we store and process marijuana evidence as well.

The law is relatively complex, with different enforcement requirements based on the defendant’s age and the weight of the drugs.  There were also changes made to the law related to the forensic testing of suspected marijuana by the Vermont Forensic Laboratory.  That said, the law is not confusing.

Brattleboro police nabbed eight senior citizens last week, including one nonagenarian, charging each with a single count of disorderly conduct.

According to police, Ellen Graves, 72, of West Springfield, MA; Priscilla Lynch, 61, of Conway, MA; Linda Owen, 73, of Brattleboro; Patricia Wieland, 69, of Northampton, MA; Anneke Corbett, 70, of Florence, MA; Frances Crowe, 94, of Northampton, MA; Marcia Gagliardi, 65, of Athol, MA, and Susan Lantz, 72, of Northampton, MA, were arrested at about 7:35 am on Wednesday, June 12.

“I often drive to and from Brattleboro on Rt 30, and often see extreme examples of tailgating. I usually set my cruise control close to the speed limit. This often results in a backup of cars behind me, and sometimes the car behind me doesn’t honor safe stopping distances.

Do they still teach about stopping distances in Driver Ed? Is there a specific law against driving too close?

What’s your advice in a tailgating situation? On a road like Rt 30, it’s not practical or safe to pull over and let all the other drivers speed by.”

What are the options for the Police/Fire project? On the one hand the project can, without further ado, go forward with its $14.1 million dollar budget. This item alone will add 9-10 cents onto the tax rate next year (beginning July 2014). On the other hand, well, anything is possible. For instance: only doing the fire station now with an extra story or two, moving the town offices there and simply making some renovations to the Municipal Bldg to get police department functions out of the basement. Postpone West Bratt for now. This would dramatically cut immediate costs.  However I put this one idea out only to open the door to brainstorming.  There are probably ten thousand other possibilities.

“As I drive around town, I’ve noticed that there seems to be a growing number of vehicles that have very faded Vermont license plates.  They are so faded that you can’t possibly read them.  They seem to be more recent plates.  The one I’ve had on my car for 15 years is still bright and readable.  Are these plates made of some material that fades rather quickly in the sun maybe?

I just wondered if this is a problem for the police, who I would think would have considerable difficulty reading the plates. And would these drivers be able to get a newer copy of the same plate somehow?”

Regarding license plates, Vermont law section 511 of Chapter 7, Title 23 requires that, among other things,  “The number plates shall be kept entirely unobscured, the numerals and the letters thereon shall be plainly legible at all times.”

The Brattleboro Police Fire Facility Committee will meet on April 25th at 4pm in the Hanna Cosman room.

Jan Anderson
Executive Secretary
Brattleboro Town Manager’s Office
(802) 251-8100

Did anyone hear of anything happening involving the police on Elm Street today? Just curious?

On a Saturday morning at 6:45 a.m. there was a loud and persistent knock at my front door. It was a police officer, who was there to serve a no trespass order which had been filed maliciously as retaliation by an irresponsible individual whom I had had to evict from a property I own. (He has been caretaking the property rent free, and it is not his residence.)

When I came to the door to find out who was banging so loud, there was a tense moment during which I felt threatened not knowing who it could be, and tense because the officer did not know whether he was about to be confronted by a dangerous person.

Welcome back to “Ask-a-Cop.” This is an official question and answer feature on ibrattleboro set up a few years ago. It is written by a Brattleboro police sergeant and all answers are approved by Chief Wrinn before posting. We haven’t had questions in a while but got this one the other day.

If you have a question for Ask-a-Cop, please email it to and put “Ask-a-Cop” in the subject line.

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“If I’m aware of domestic abuse problems with another couple, am I required to report it? How can I tell if it is worth reporting?”

The Town of Brattleboro is seeking applications from residents to serve on the newly created Police-Fire Facility Committee. This seven member ad hoc committee is responsible for providing financial and technical oversight to the Police-Fire renovation/addition project.