The top cop in Vermont’s largest city is leaving. The mayor’s office announced Tuesday that Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad won’t seek reappointment next year after more than four years on the job.
Murad will stay on as chief until at least April 7, according to a Nov. 4 letter he sent to Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak. He didn’t give any reason why he wasn’t seeking reappointment, and declined an interview request on Tuesday.
“It has been my great honor to be the Chief of Police,” Murad said in the letter. “The people of the Burlington Police Department are some of the best coworkers I have ever had, and serving the citizens of the city in which I was born has been one of the greatest privileges of my life.”
The city didn’t offer any details Tuesday about the process for finding a new police chief. A spokesperson for Mulvaney-Stanak said the mayor wasn’t available for an interview.
City Council President Ben Traverse said he hoped the city’s administration would engage the community in the search process.
“When I say the whole community I mean the community at large,” Traverse said in an interview. “I mean the city council, I mean our police commission. I mean certainly, of course, the officers of the police department.”
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Murad joined the Burlington Police Department in 2018 as a deputy chief after spending more than a decade at the New York Police Department. His first stint as police chief in Burlington came in late 2019 when the previous chief, Brandon del Pozo, resigned after admitting he created a fake Twitter account to mock a critic. Murad was named acting chief after a senior police officer initially tapped to lead the department also admitted to having a fake social media account.
Murad, after a brief break, took over again as acting chief in June 2020 when interim Chief Jennifer Morrison left. He led the department through a tumultuous period marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, staffing shortages that came after the city council voted to cap the size of the department, a month-long racial justice protest in front of the department’s headquarters, and a spike in shootings in 2022.
In an email to BPD employees, Murad said he was proud of the department’s work over the recent years, which included closing a 50-year-old murder case; hiring more unarmed, non-sworn community service officers; and working to bolster the department’s ranks.
“Rebuilding has been, is, and will continue to be my number one priority, but I will not get there with you,” Murad said in an email Tuesday morning to BPD employees. “And yet I urge all of you to keep believing that it can be done, because the city needs you.”
Murad’s tenure has also been marked by controversy. Last year state regulators admonished Murad for threatening to arrest a surgeon at the University of Vermont Medical Center who was treating a gunshot victim. Seven Days first reported that incident.
Murad has also come under fire about his knowledge of a contract that allowed Burlington police officers to work private security shifts at a condo complex during a time when the force was experiencing an acute staff shortage, Seven Days reported. And in 2021, the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont accused Murad of misrepresenting the city’s crime statistics to drum up support for increasing police funding.
Murad, despite leading the Queen City’s police department for four years, was only appointed as permanent chief last year. Progressives on the city council blocked former Democratic Mayor Miro Weinberger’s first attempt to appoint him in 2022 over concerns that he wasn’t willing to lead police reform efforts. Murad was eventually appointed the permanent chief in 2023 after Democrats won seats on the council.
There were questions this year about whether Mulvaney-Stanak, a Progressive who was elected on Town Meeting Day, would reappoint Murad. She ultimately did, though Progressives on the council still voted against his appointment.
The recent election found Murad lobbying against a ballot item that would bolster police oversight, while Mulvaney-Stanak, his boss, supported it.
The charter change, which gives the police commission more oversight authority and establishes an independent board to review police misconduct, passed on Election Day with 62% of residents supporting it. The Legislature and governor still need to sign off on the measure.
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