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Springfield Hears About Rutland's Approach To Crime

Susan Keese
/
VPR
Rutland Police Chief James Baker spoke in Springfield about Rutland's approach to cleaning up crime.

In Springfield Monday night, more than 200 people turned out to consider ways to deal with the problem of drugs and criminal behavior in town.

Rutland Police Chief James Baker was asked to come to Springfield to talk about Rutland’s approach to similar problems over the past few years. Baker is also the former director of the Vermont State Police. He said it takes more than police action to deal with drugs and crime. It takes creating an environment that isn’t conducive to illegal activity.

"There is more control over criminal activity and misbehavior when a community sets norms and holds people to those norms," Baker said. "It could be as simple as zoning and building enforcement, holding people accountable for what the expectation of the community is."

Baker recommended data-gathering technology to pinpoint trouble spots and focus police efforts more effectively. But he called relying on law enforcement alone "a set-up for failure."

"Because so many of the issues that are involved with the underlying crime issue," he said, "are either mental health-driven or substance abuse-driven, family dysfunction, have nothing to do with the police department." Baker said it takes a concentrated, collaborative effort to change a community for the better.

Susan Keese was VPR's southern Vermont reporter, based at the VPR studio in Manchester at Burr & Burton Academy. After many years as a print journalist and magazine writer, Susan started producing stories for VPR in 2002. From 2007-2009, she worked as a producer, helping to launch the noontime show Vermont Edition. Susan has won numerous journalism awards, including two regional Edward R. Murrow Awards for her reporting on VPR. She wrote a column for the Sunday Rutland Herald and Barre-Montpelier Times Argus. Her work has appeared in Vermont Life, the Boston Globe Magazine, The New York Times and other publications, as well as on NPR.
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