Police & Fire

The Brattleboro fire department urges all residents to be safe this Fourth of July.

In Vermont All Fireworks (not including sparklers and other novelty smoke devices) are illegal except for permitted, supervised public fireworks displays. Fireworks all too often result in serious burns, hearing loss and other injuries due to miss-use. Even sparklers, which are considered by many to be harmless, can reach, 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit, which is hot enough to cause 3rd degree burns.

In recognition of the fact that everyone is a legitimate stakeholder when it comes to public safety, a committee of citizens is being formed to participate in candidate interviews as one step in the overall process of hiring the next police chief. The Town Manager’s Office will be accepting letters of interest from motivated members of the public for participation in the Police Chief Search – Community Committee.

After nearly 28 years of dedicated service to the community of Brattleboro, Police Chief Gene Wrinn has announced his intention to retire from the department effective June 27th. Chief Wrinn was hired by the department in 1986 and quickly rose through the ranks. He was appointed to the position of Sergeant in 1989, promoted to the rank of Captain in 2002, and ultimately he accepted an appointment to the position of Chief of Police in 2008.

Chief Wrinn has had a distinguished career with the Brattleboro Police Department, receiving recognition for his work rebuilding positive relations with the community. Chief Wrinn instituted a program to enhance public safety in the downtown by requiring patrol officers to perform foot patrols as a regular part of their workday.

The Brattleboro Police-Fire Facilities Building Committee will meet on Thursday, May 1, 2014 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

The Brattleboro Citizen Police Communications Committee (CPCC) will meet on Monday, April 28, 2014 at 5:30pm in the Brooks Memorial Library community room.

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

Yes, another fire. Second floor porch and 2nd alarm. We had at least 5 fire trucks. Another Bob Remy-Powers building. 

Early this morning, there was an officer involved shooting at a hotel on Putney Road. As per statewide protocol, the Vermont State Police is investigating. Further information will be made available in the future. Questions can be directed to the Windham County State’s Attorney at 257-2860. 

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

The Police-Fire Facility Building Committee meeting previously scheduled on April 3 has been cancelled.

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

“It seems to me that most people dont know how to use the exit 3 traffic circle correctly. By which i mean that traffic entering the circle that will be exiting imediately stay in the right hand lane and all other traffic that wont be exiting immediately stay in the left hand lane…

This doesn’t seem to be just an out of state driver issue. I know many long time brattleboro residents who will stay in the right hand lane the full distance around the circle. My question is: Is this enforced in any way? Who is at fault if a driver in the right hand lane bypasses the immediate exit and a driver in the left hand lane exits into them causing an accident? Why is there no sign better representing how to effectively use the roundabout? It really is a systemic problem.”

Police closed off Saxtons River Road west at West Street in Bellows Falls shortly before 8:00 am today. I saw a dozen or so police and fire vehicles heading west and a policeman was overheard telling motorists that there was a fire.

As seen by Anthony Gilbert.

“Has the department ever requested or used tower dumps (requesting all data from a cell tower)? If so, did it require a warrant or court order?” 

The Brattleboro Police Department regularly obtains information from cellular phone companies.  This information is obtained through the use of court ordered search warrants or subpoenas, depending on the information sought.  These orders relate to specific suspects or specific phone numbers. 

If the officer has applied for it specifically, and the judge approved it, the information will include what cell towers were used by the person/number and when.  However, BPD has never requested a cell tower dump.

Date of Incident: 12/18/2013
Location of Incident: 72 Green St
Nature of Call: Building fire
Time Reported: 2:21 am
Time Under Control: 5:35 am
Number of Alarms and Times Upgraded: 2nd alarm – 2:23 am, 3rd alarm – 2:34 am

The twitter is reporting accidents along Rt 9 – a truck stuck near Sunset Lake Rd, and near Searsburg/Rt 8 there are stuck cars and trucks.

The Windham County Sheriff recommends staying in unless it is an emergency. If you do drive, go slowly and keep a safe distance between cars.

Brattleboro Police are looking for the driver of the vehicle that struck and killed a pedestrian on Western Avenue near Union Street around 7:00 Friday night. The vehicle involved had left the scene before emergency crews arrived. The name of the victim has not yet been released. Anyone with information is urged to contact police at 257-7950 or the TIPSLINE at 251-8188.

Taken verbatim from the police report. More details are in the Reformer.

“Theft/Credit Card Fraud
November 15, 2013

Date of Incident: 11/14/13 1:30 am

Sgt. Witherbee

James Smith/ Arthur Jacobs IV 35/18

Brattleboro Police have been investigating numerous thefts from motor vehicles. The investigation led to James Eric Smith and Arthur Jacobs IV and Crystal Jobe. All three suspects were taken into custody by Brattleboro Police on 11/13/13.

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?”

……

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.