Racial justice advocates are questioning the Scott administration’s commitment to bias-free policing after the firing last week of an official at the Vermont Department of Public Safety.
For the last five years, Etan Nasreddin-Longo has headed up a division at Vermont State Police that was created to build “relationships of trust with communities of color and other minority communities,” according to the VSP website.
Nasreddin-Longo said he was summoned to a meeting with Commissioner of Public Safety Jennifer Morrison Thursday afternoon and told that he was being terminated from his role as director of the Office of Fair and Impartial Policing and Community Affairs.
Nasreddin-Longo told Vermont Public that Morrison offered no reason for his firing.
“Three weeks before this, I was told my work was excellent,” Nasreddin-Longo said Monday.
Nasreddin-Longo said he received the positive review verbally after his supervisor discussed the possibility of him moving from a salaried position to working on a contract basis with the department. He said he declined that arrangement because he wanted to maintain employee benefits.
To lose somebody with that kind of knowledge, with that kind of trust across spheres, it’s absolutely a huge loss.Tabitha Moore, Vermont Fair and Impartial Policing Committee
The Department of Public Safety issued a press release Monday afternoon confirming that Nasreddin-Longo “is not currently a state employee.”
“The department’s longstanding commitment to the principles of fair and impartial policing remains unchanged, and the work of the Office of Fair and Impartial Policing and Community Affairs will continue,” the department wrote.
Some of the people who’ve been most involved in the fair and impartial policing initiative aren’t so sure.
Stephanie Seguino is a longtime member of the Vermont Fair and Impartial Policing Committee, which advises VSP on issues such as hiring practices and training on implicit bias. She called Nasreddin-Longo’s firing “deeply disturbing” and said it raises serious questions about the state’s commitment to better serving marginalized communities.
“I’m not sure that I can continue to support (the Department of Public Safety’s) work in the face of the way this has been handled, and the way that it has really undermined the trust of committee members,” Seguino said.
Nasreddin-Longo was one of the few people of color involved in policymaking decisions at the highest levels of state law enforcement. Seguino said he served as a bridge between state police and the communities whose trust they were trying to earn.
“He was an important vehicle for transmitting those concerns. He also was an important person to whom we could appeal to make certain changes at VSP,” she said.
State officials did not respond to questions Monday about whether Nasreddin-Longo would be replaced.
For those who are watching closely, it sends a message. And it’s not a good one.Hartford Rep. Kevin Christie
Tabitha Moore, another member of the Fair and Impartial Policing Committee, pointed to an award Nasreddin-Longo received from the Department of Public Safety in 2022 for his “outstanding dedication and contributions” to fair and impartial policing.
“To lose somebody with that kind of knowledge, with that kind of trust across spheres, it’s absolutely a huge loss,” Moore said.
In a press release Friday, state Rep. Kevin Christie called Nasreddin-Longo’s termination “incomprehensible.” That the firing comes as the Trump administration seeks to dismantle “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives nationwide, Christie said in an interview Monday, won’t go unnoticed by people of color in Vermont.
“For those who are watching closely, it sends a message,” the Hartford Democrat said. “And it’s not a good one.”
Xusana Davis, who was appointed by Republican Gov. Phil Scott in 2019 to serve as director of the Vermont Office of Racial Equity, described Nasreddin-Longo as overqualified for the work the state had hired him to do.
“The state didn’t deserve Etan. The background he had, the credentials he had, and how much of himself he was willing to give to the state,” she said.
Davis said she hasn’t been told whether the Department of Public Safety will fill Nasreddin-Longo’s position. And she said she has concerns about the integrity of the work in his absence.
“You want to make sure that the work itself is being continued, that it’s being continued with fidelity, that incidents, cases, people don’t fall through cracks,” Davis said.
After he was fired, Nasreddin-Longo said two state troopers escorted him back to his home in Putney to take his badge, his government-issued laptop and phone, and the unmarked cruiser he used for state work.
He said he worries about the fate of the relationships he worked so hard to cultivate during his five years on the job.
“You can’t do this policymaking work and keep the people it affects most directly out of the conversation, and then expect some social buy-in,” he said. “I just did it because I believe in the work. I really, really, really believe in the work.”
