Brandon del Pozo

Brandon del Pozo, PhD, MPA, MA (born 1974) is a drug policy and public health researcher^[1] who was the chief of police of Burlington, Vermont. He was appointed to the position on September 1, 2015.^[2] Prior to coming to Burlington, del Pozo served with the New York City Police Department for nearly two decades, rising to the rank of deputy inspector. While there, he commanded the 6th and 50th Precincts,^[3][4] and served overseas as an intelligence officer for the Arab world and India (based in Jordan's capital, Amman), where he investigated terror attacks to see what lessons they offered for better protecting New York City.^[3][5] He has received national recognition for his innovation and reform.^[6]

Education[]

Born in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of the New York borough of Brooklyn to a Cuban father and Jewish mother,^[4] del Pozo graduated from Stuyvesant High School^[7] in New York, then completed a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College.^[8]

Del Pozo earned a master's degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a master of arts in Criminal Justice from John Jay College.^[9][10] While at the Kennedy School, he was a 9/11 Public Service Fellow, in recognition of the sacrifices made by first responders on that day.^[9][11]

He holds a PhD in Philosophy and the enroute MPhil from The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York.^[12] His dissertation, The Police and the State, "offers a systematic account of the relationship between the police and the democratic state" in terms of contemporary political philosophy.^[13]

Career[]

Citing the challenges of policing in the United States,^[14] del Pozo came to Burlington with a desire to improve police services in the city as a model for progress in the profession.^[15] His appointment was contested by some locals due to his prior work with the New York Police Department (NYPD).^[16] After a public discussion of his views, his nomination was unanimously approved by the Burlington City Council.^[17]

Opioid addiction and overdose reduction[]

Opioid abuse and dependency have been a concern for the city and its police in light of the state of Vermont's wider struggles with opioid addiction.^[18][19] Burlington mayor Miro Weinberger directed del Pozo to create and implement a strategy^[20] for addressing its effects that focuses on public health rather than law enforcement^[21] and uses data and collaboration as cornerstones of the approach.^[22] Shortly after taking on the leadership of the Burlington Police Department, del Pozo began a wide-ranging initiative.^[23] He directed all patrol officers to carry Naloxone, the overdose reversal drug,^[24] and assisted the mayor's office with the creation of the city's Opioid Policy Coordinator position, as well as staffing his office with analysts with graduate training in epidemiology and biostatistics.^{[25][non-primary source needed]} Based out of the police department, the two positions vet police work for better public health outcomes and assist the city in formulating policies, directives and public engagements to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with opioid abuse.^[26]

Del Pozo has been known to personally meet with and try to help members of the community suffering from addiction,^[27] and his insights into the need for swift action and an end to stigma in treating addiction and overdose have gone viral and gained national attention.^[28] He has been vocal about the need for all people suffering from opioid addiction to have prompt access to the medications proven to treat it,^[29] including prisoners,^[30] and he adopted a policy in conjunction with the county prosecutor where his department would not arrest people for unprescribed possession of buprenorphine.^[31][32] In early 2020, the city of Philadelphia took the same position towards buprenorphine, citing Burlington's leadership on the issue.^{[33][non-primary source needed]}

In 2018, as the rest of Vermont saw a 20% increase in opioid overdose deaths, Burlington's county saw a 50% decline in these deaths, to their lowest levels since 2013, when the state began keeping records.^[34] The reduction was sustained through the end of 2019.^[35]

Del Pozo served on the board of trustees of the Howard Center, Vermont's largest addiction and mental health service provider.^[36]

Use of force[]

In the winter of 2016, after a Burlington police officer killed Phil Grenon, a man who attacked the police with knives at the end of a prolonged standoff,^[37] del Pozo began a program to improve outcomes in the use of force, piloting the Police Executive Research Forum's (PERF) new force guidelines and curriculum^[38][39] and introducing new tactics and technologies that avert physical confrontations while maintaining officer safety.^[40] The Reveal, a show syndicated by American Public Media, produced a segment taking a close look at the incident and its aftermath: "When Tasers Fail."^[41]

In 2018, del Pozo gave the highest award in the department to an officer who was in the path of a robbery suspect fleeing in a vehicle and would have been justified in opening fire on the vehicle, but chose not to,^{[42][non-primary source needed]} saying that restraint was a valuable quality in a police officer.^[43] He also investigated the Vermont State Police Academy for allegations that officers were needlessly being struck unexpectedly in the head during training scenarios, causing a pattern of concussions.^[44] As a result, the academy settled a suit with one of the injured students and ceased delivering unexpected blows to the heads of its recruits.^[45]

In November 2019, del Pozo authored an op-ed in The New York Times arguing that when confronting persons in crisis armed with knives, police officers should view their firearms as a means to defend themselves and others from harm, rather than the means by which to persuade the person to drop the knife, often accompanied by yelling orders that only escalate the person in crisis.^[46] Instead, he advocated that officers should have a gun at the ready, but engage with distressed suspects by emphasizing containment and deescalation whenever possible.^[46]

A few weeks later, his view was echoed by the Washington Post editorial board, which observed that the present protocol "is for officers to advance and draw their guns, repeatedly shout 'Drop the knife!' and hope for compliance. But pointing a gun at a person in crisis tends to increase their anxiety and exacerbate the situation, while advancing toward them may put the officer in unnecessary danger." The Post repeated del Pozo's observation that, in sum, "officers should be trained not to point weapons at potentially suicidal people, to move a safe distance away and continue backing away when possible, and to converse with the person rather than shouting commands."^[47] Both opinion pieces were based on a research report by PERF outlining the potential for such innovations in police tactics to maintain officer safety while reducing shootings.^[48]

Overseas intelligence[]

In 2005, citing intelligence failures that led to the 9/11 terror attacks, the NYPD selected del Pozo to create and staff its first intelligence liaison post with the Arab world, based out of Amman, Jordan.^[49] Embedded with the Jordanian National Police, he responded to suicide bombings at Jordanian hotels planned and executed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and an attack on a Roman amphitheater.^[50] He also responded to two attacks in Mumbai, India: a 2006 bombing of seven trains on the city's commuter rail,^[51][52] and the 2008 Lashkar-e-Taiba-led attack on downtown Mumbai itself, where a team of gunmen attacked hotels, transportation hubs, tourist areas and a Jewish cultural center. Del Pozo reported his analyses back to the NYPD and other agencies,^[53] assessing how these attacks could be replicated by exploiting security vulnerabilities in New York City,^[54] and what measures could be taken to prevent them.^[55] His role was unique in that there was no other US intelligence officer conducting work on behalf of a municipal police department in either region.^[56]

Transparency[]

An advocate for greater transparency in policing and government, del Pozo created a police data transparency portal where he discloses a range of raw and processed data about the work of the Burlington Police under a quote by legal philosopher Jeremy Waldron: "In a democracy, the accountable agents of the people owe the people an account of what they have been doing, and a refusal to provide this is simple insolence."^[57] He has spoken at the Obama White House to an audience of police leaders on the value of the practice as part of efforts to implement the recommendations of the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing.^[58] During his tenure, the police department has made concerted efforts to diversify its rank and file, with moderate success.^[59]

Recognition[]

In May 2016, the PERF awarded del Pozo its Gary Hayes Memorial Award for his innovation and leadership.^[60] He is also an executive fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Police Foundation, a "national, independent non-profit organization dedicated to advancing policing through innovation and science."^[61] New York Times editor and book critic Dwight Garner characterized del Pozo as "thoughtful and sane."^{[62][non-primary source needed]}

Resignation[]

Del Pozo resigned as chief on December 16, 2019, after disclosing that he had used an anonymous Twitter account to direct eight tweets at a critic of the city, for an hour on July 4, before deleting the tweets and the account within the hour.^[63] He then took medical leave a few weeks later,^[64][65] which he would go on to disclose as resulting from persistent stress-related concussion symptoms from a near-fatal bicycle crash in 2018.^[66] The Tweets concerned the person's criticism of outdoor dining, the city's AmeriCorps program, and the renovation of public parks.^[67] When asked by a reporter about the tweets later that July, del Pozo denied authorship.^[68] Five months later, when del Pozo admitted that he authored the tweets, he resigned. Plaintiffs suing the city in an unrelated case filed a complaint that del Pozo had not listed the account during the discovery process. The presiding judge dismissed the compliant as not made in good faith, because the account had no relevance to the case and did not need to be included.^[69] In a statement to The New York Times, del Pozo said he wrote eight Tweets "in 45 minutes of my life that I wish I could take back, but they taught me that nothing good ever comes from letting social media criticism get under your skin... It was a real lesson learned during a stressful time in my life."^[70]

In February of 2022, the city of Burlington ended its recurring searches for a new permanent chief,^[71] citing a lack of applicants qualified to replace del Pozo.^[72][73] The mayor cited actions taken by the city council "that have weakened the Department and undermined the Chief’s role" as contributing to an unsuccessful search.^[74] When the mayor attempted to name acting chief Jon Murad to be del Pozo's permanent successor that January, Murad was voted down by the city council in a 6-6 decision along party lines, Democrats for and Progressives against.^[75]

Bicycle Accident[]

In 2018, while training for his second Lake Placid Ironman 70.3, del Pozo suffered multiple serious injuries in a bicycle accident, including three skull fractures, brain hemorrhaging, a partially collapsed lung, and seven other broken bones.^[76] He was transported by emergency airlift to an intensive care unit at the UVM Medical Center.^[77][78] After eight weeks of convalescence, he returned to full duty in his role.^[79] Suffering from concussion symptoms that he says persisted beyond his return, del Pozo cited the accident as a contributor to work-related stress and his request for a second medical leave in the summer of 2019.^[64][65]

Research[]

Shortly after completing his doctorate, del Pozo's dissertation research was featured on Slate and in a podcast by Hi-Phi nation,^[80] and showcased by the CUNY Graduate Center as an example of doctoral research with the potential for significant public impact.^[81] He then accepted a position as a postdoctoral researcher in drug policy and substance use^[1] at the Miriam Hospital and the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. He is presently writing a book about police work for Farrar, Straus & Giroux.^[15]

Personal life[]

Del Pozo married Sarah Carnevale in 2002.^[82] They moved to Burlington from the village of Cold Spring, New York.^[83] He wrote and directed a narrative short film, Sunday 1287,^[84] which screened at the Middlebury and Vermont International Film Festivals.^[85] The film was based on a crime he investigated while commanding a precinct in the New York borough of the Bronx. An outdoors enthusiast,^[86] he has climbed New Hampshire's 48 highest mountains,^[87] completed the Lake Placid Half Ironman and other triathlons, and written for publications about cycling and climbing.^[88][89]

References[]