Leaders in Burlington are working on new solutions to address safety in the downtown area, including boosting law enforcement’s presence. Shamus Parker, who’s been a business owner in Burlington for three decades, said he believes this is a necessary step to address the challenges and others face throughout the Queen City. Parker owns a tattoo and piercing parlor on Main Street and is now opening a second location on Church Street. However, when he heads downtown to open his shops each day, he said he finds “people that are under the drugs of drugs and alcohol passed out, sleeping maybe, hypodermic needles, defecation in the doorway.” Parker said he’s left responsible for asking people to move from the entrance of his business and to clean up anything they leave behind. “You know, we don’t do it, it doesn’t get done, you know. So, it’s unfortunate,” he said.Parker said the challenges he faces today are felt throughout the downtown community. “People are afraid to come down to Burlington, to Church Street any more,” he said. “And I don’t blame them.”The city has contracted the Chittenden County Sheriff’s Department to have an officer monitor the Marketplace parking garage every weekday from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Dan Gamelin, Chittenden County sheriff, said the city is paying his department $1,500 per week for an officer to patrol the garage and main stairwell from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. “I notice from the general public that they’re happy we’re here because they feel safe at the times we’re here,” Gamelin said. The city has asked the department not to arrest people they find partaking in disruptive behavior, such as drug use, but to ask them to leave the garage and stairwell.”We’ve kicked out people in the stairway almost every day,” Gamelin said. “I mean, we watch them, see drug use, defecating in the elevators. There’s a few things we’ve seen here. But they move along when we ask them to move along.”Kara Alnasrawi, Church Street Marketplace director, said they’ve also asked Burlington Police officers to complete paperwork from their patrol cars and to park their patrol cars around the city while doing so, and for private businesses to put no trespass signs on their shops. “It allows the police department to engage with that population a little bit more and control some of the behavior occurring in those areas,” Alnasrawi said. Parker said that after 30 years in Burlington, he thinks having more police present is the best solution and hopes to see Burlington return to being the city he’s known and loved. “You know, trespass signs, I don’t know, you know, we’re going to put some up, and we’ll see how it does,” he said. “We can bring Burlington back to where it was, you know, with a little bit of effort and a little bit of care and love and everything else in between.”
Leaders in Burlington are working on new solutions to address safety in the downtown area, including boosting law enforcement’s presence.
Shamus Parker, who’s been a business owner in Burlington for three decades, said he believes this is a necessary step to address the challenges and others face throughout the Queen City.
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Parker owns a tattoo and piercing parlor on Main Street and is now opening a second location on Church Street. However, when he heads downtown to open his shops each day, he said he finds “people that are under the drugs of drugs and alcohol passed out, sleeping maybe, hypodermic needles, defecation in the doorway.”
Parker said he’s left responsible for asking people to move from the entrance of his business and to clean up anything they leave behind.
“You know, we don’t do it, it doesn’t get done, you know. So, it’s unfortunate,” he said.
Parker said the challenges he faces today are felt throughout the downtown community.
“People are afraid to come down to Burlington, to Church Street any more,” he said. “And I don’t blame them.”
The city has contracted the Chittenden County Sheriff’s Department to have an officer monitor the Marketplace parking garage every weekday from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Dan Gamelin, Chittenden County sheriff, said the city is paying his department $1,500 per week for an officer to patrol the garage and main stairwell from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
“I notice from the general public that they’re happy we’re here because they feel safe at the times we’re here,” Gamelin said.
The city has asked the department not to arrest people they find partaking in disruptive behavior, such as drug use, but to ask them to leave the garage and stairwell.
“We’ve kicked out people in the stairway almost every day,” Gamelin said. “I mean, we watch them, see drug use, defecating in the elevators. There’s a few things we’ve seen here. But they move along when we ask them to move along.”
Kara Alnasrawi, Church Street Marketplace director, said they’ve also asked Burlington Police officers to complete paperwork from their patrol cars and to park their patrol cars around the city while doing so, and for private businesses to put no trespass signs on their shops.
“It allows the police department to engage with that population a little bit more and control some of the behavior occurring in those areas,” Alnasrawi said.
Parker said that after 30 years in Burlington, he thinks having more police present is the best solution and hopes to see Burlington return to being the city he’s known and loved.
“You know, trespass signs, I don’t know, you know, we’re going to put some up, and we’ll see how it does,” he said. “We can bring Burlington back to where it was, you know, with a little bit of effort and a little bit of care and love and everything else in between.”
