Brian Peete will be making history as he steps into the job as Montpelier police chief.
Peete, 44, most recently served as the chief of police of a department in New Mexico. According to Montpelier City Manager William Fraser, Peete is believed to be the first black person to hold the rank of police chief in Vermont.
Peete is taking over the department as protests against police brutality and racism have erupted across the nation. The incoming chief said Thursday he was “humbled” by his selection as Montpelier’s next police chief and by making history.
“While we do have challenges within law enforcement across the country, there are still good things going on,” he said. “There are still governments that get it, they want to make sure they have the best people for the job, and they want to promote diversity.”
Peete will start in the job as the Capital City’s next police chief in about three weeks. He will be taking over from Chief Tony Facos, who is retiring June 30 after 12 years as the top cop in Montpelier and a total of 35 years with the department.
Fraser said in a video press conference Wednesday that Peete was the top candidate for the post.Â
In an interview Thursday, Peete said he plans to spend a great deal of time outside of the police station getting to know and interacting with as many people as he can while following the social distancing guidelines.Â
“I will be out there everywhere,” he said. “You see me in the grocery store, you see me walking down Main Street or State Street, please stop me and tell me what it is that you want to see from me, what is it that I can do to make the community that I’m going to serve better.”
He said, like everyone else, he has been watching the protests across the country following the police killing last week of George Floyd, a black man, in Minneapolis.
“It’s breaking my heart to see everything going on, to see a lot of people who have been hurt by traditional police operating systems and cultures,” he said.
“It just breaks my heart,” Peete added, “that police agencies, some of them, are not able to truly focus on the service aspect, and remembering that they are of the people, and remember that we serve the people.”
Peete said he was attracted to the Montpelier job in large part because he believes that the department already holds itself to high standards.
But, he said, there is always more to be done, and the public expects and demands accountability as well as compassion.
“We have to care,” Peete said. “Empathy has to be a big part of the training.”
Peete is the city’s first chief in the last 40 years to come from outside the department. Facos served a dozen years in the job, and before him William Hoyt had 27 years in the post, according to Fraser.
Nineteen people applied for Montpelier’s police chief position, Fraser said, with the field whittled down to three finalists.
City officials, members of the police department, and a citizen advisory group made up of community members assisted in the search process, the city manager said.
The citizen group members included June Bascom, board chair of the Montpelier Community Justice Center; Mary Moulton, executive director of Washington County Mental Health Services; Steve Pappas, Rutland Herald/Times Argus editor; Daniel Groberg, executive director of Montpelier Alive; Rory Thibault, Washington County state’s attorney; and Julia Chafets, member of the Social and Economic Justice Committee.
Peete, who is from Chicago, served in the U.S. Air Force before starting his law enforcement career with the Chicago Police Department, working in several different roles, including as a patrolman and field training officer.
He became chief of the police department in Alamogordo, New Mexico, in April 2018, serving in that role until his departure in November 2019 when he resigned in a dispute with city officials.
According to reports in The Alamogordo Daily News, Peete was suspended from his job after writing a whistleblower letter that took issue with the city’s administration, which he said was “dysfunctional.” He was then suspended, prompting him to bring a complaint against the city and a former manager for allegedly violating the state’s Whistleblower Protection Act.
Eventually, in November, he resigned from the position.
“I just saw what I considered administrative violations and fiscal mismanagement and I guess actions and behaviors that caused me great concerns about how the city was operating,” Peete said Thursday. “It was just a place that was no longer comfortable as a work environment.”
Fraser said he looked long into that situation and came away confident in moving forward with hiring Peete.
“I called more references than I would normally call,” he said. “I called several people, including people that he hadn’t listed. We called people in the department, we called people who worked for the city, even folks who had in the paper not been supporting him particularly.”
“By all accounts he handled himself with grace and integrity throughout the whole process. We work in environments with elected officials and the public, sometimes these things get political and sometimes these things happen,” Fraser said.Â
The city manager said he briefed city councilors on Peete’s track record. “I particularly told them if you Google it, this is what you’re going to find,” he said.Â
Fraser highlighted Peete’s accomplishments as police chief in Alamogordo, which included bringing a Crisis Intervention Team Program to the department, writing the agency’s first strategic plan, and establishing a “robust” training program.
“We looked at all the factors and he arose to the top,” the city manager added. “In the end, this is not only great that we’re getting a great chief, but it’s great that we can make some social progress here as well.”
Mayor Anne Watson said during the press conference Wednesday that she supported Peete’s selection, calling it a “great hire.”
Peete will start June 15 working with Facos as part of a transitioning process. He will formally be sworn in as the city’s 15th police chief on July 1.Â
Peete’s salary will be $103,000 a year, the same amount Facos was paid, according to Fraser.