VERMONT'S NEWSPAPER FOR LESBIANS, GAY MEN, AND BISEXUALS

 

Volume VIII, Number 2

April 1993

Greg Knight, Senior Patrolman,
Burlington Police Department

I’m Greg Knight, and I have been a po-
lice officer for the City of Burlington for
over three years. Presently, I have been
selected to work in the Community Based
Police (CBP) unit. What is important to
know about the unit is that it takes a po-
lice officer out of the cruiser and puts
him or her back on the street. These of-
ficers are assigned a specific area of the
community and become familiar with the
various needs and problems indigenous
to that area. It breaks down the walls that
have developed between the community
and law enforcement. It is in fact a return
to the “old school” putting the cop back
on the beat.

During my three months at CBP, my at-
tention has been called to the gap that ex-
ists between the gay and lesbian com-
munity and law enforcement. In several
incidents, I have been unable to do my
job because the person(s) involved were
not comfortable talking to me as a cop.
Leads cultivated have dried up because I
have few contacts in the gay and lesbian
community, and the stigma assigned to
both_ law enforcement and the gay and
lesbian _ communities makes any in-
vestigation difficult. I would like to en-
surethat the gay and lesbian community
receives the same services that would be
offered to any other.

On March 4, the CBP unit had a pro-
ductive interview session with Walt

Zeichner. That interview appears in this '

issue of OITM. Walt and I will be dis-
cussing a date for a gay/lesbian and po-
lice forum in the near future.

In closing I would like to express my ap-
preciation to Karin Eade of Outright Ver-
mont for setting up the initial meting, and
also to those who attended for getting
things moving. V

‘ A Police Officer for YOUR Community?

Photo Walter Zeichner

Clockwise from top left: Dave Scibek, Tim Ahonen, Greg Knight, Sonny Provetto
(missing Robert Booher). Halftone courtesy Stats & Less, Burlington

Burlington Police Reach out to
Gay/Lesbian Community

Walter I. Zeichner

Monday, February 22, a meeting was
held between two members of the Bur-
lington Police Department and some
members of the lesbian/gay community.
The meeting took place at the offices of
Outright Vermont. The Officers present
were Greg Knight, who requested the
meeting, and one of his fellow Com-
munity Based Police Officers, Sonny
Provetto. Also present were Karin Eade
of Outright Vermont; Barbara Brody of
the Burlington Police Commission; Lar-
ry Wolf, Chair of Out in the Mountains;
Tim Kane, UVM Community Service
Coordinator; John Olson, HIV Educator

with Vt. CARES; and psychotherapists
Howard “Howdy” Russell and Walter I.
Zeichner.

One of the ideas that came out of the
group is to hold a community meeting
which would serve as a forum, to open
dialogue between the police and the com-
munity. All lesbians and gay men in Bur-
lington would be welcome, and all of the
five Community Based Police Officers
would attend. One focus of the meeting
would be to build an alliance between the
police and our community so that people

Continued on Page 17