Windsor County sheriff expands department beyond county lines
Published: 01-24-2025 6:02 PM
Modified: 01-24-2025 9:55 PM |
WOODSTOCK — The last weeks of December were busy for the Windsor County Sheriff’s Department.
On Dec. 15, Windsor County Sheriff Ryan Palmer and four deputies drove 73 miles north to Caledonia County to back up local police in apprehending a 38-year-old St. Johnsbury man charged with shooting one of the town’s police officers two days earlier.
Seven days later, on Dec. 22, a Windsor deputy was in Springfield, Vt., to help town police and Vermont Fish & Wildlife officers investigate a report of emaciated and dehydrated animals kept at a Springfield residence and bring animal cruelty charges against the caretakers.
Five days after that, on Dec. 28, the Woodstock-based sheriff was again in Springfield to assist police there in identifying and nabbing a man wanted on felony charges of heroin possession and stealing a motor vehicle. A few hours later that same evening, Palmer and a deputy were in Tunbridge — which is in Orange County — on a tip to arrest a man wanted on an extradition warrant out of Oregon for cooking meth.
The Windsor Sheriff’s Department — once known for the dubious distinction of running one of Vermont’s most notorious speed traps in Bridgewater — has greatly expanded its scope under Palmer’s leadership, his law enforcement brethren said, even at a time when many police agencies around the state have struggled with manpower issues.
“It has been a complete 180-degree turn in collaboration since his arrival,” said Hartford Police Chief Gregory Sheldon, of Palmer, who next month will reach the two-year mark as Windsor sheriff.
“When we call for assistance, whether it’s to transport someone to court” or prison, Ryan and his staff have been there without hesitation,” Sheldon said, adding that “during some of our more involved and intense emergency situations he has shown up at our police station with a deputy or two and offered assistance even before being asked and without being financially compensated.”
Windsor deputies appear to like the changes, too.
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As opposed to the prior emphasis on writing speeding tickets that some towns rely upon to fill their coffers, “We’re actually getting to do police work,” said Tom Battista, a veteran Windsor County Sheriff’s deputy. “Which is what we should be doing.”
County sheriff departments, at least in Vermont, have traditionally been viewed on the low rung in policing.
Their role has been typically consigned to prosaic tasks of law enforcement: transportation of defendants and inmates, writing speeding tickets and traffic control around construction sites, courthouse security and serving warrants in civil lawsuits.
In Vermont, county sheriffs receive little in the way of taxpayer support. They must rely on contracts with individual towns, state courthouses and fees from attorneys for serving legal papers. Another chunk comes from private companies, such as paving contractors, for providing traffic control.
Since taking over the Windsor County Sheriff’s Department two years ago when he defeated longtime incumbent Michael Chamberlain, Palmer, 38, has aggressively pushed to refashion the sheriff’s function into a county-wide and even inter-county police force.
“We should be a public safety-centric organization, not a revenue-centric organization,” Palmer said.
At 22 full-time and nine part-time deputies — more than double the number two years ago — the Windsor sheriff now ranks among the top five of Vermont’s 13 county sheriffs in terms of staffing. That places it on par in size with local Upper Valley police forces in Hartford, Lebanon, Hanover and Claremont.
Two years ago, the Windsor sheriff provided police patrols to nine towns in Windsor County that do not have their own cops. Today, it fields patrols to 15 towns, including four in Orange County, where this month the town of Strafford became the latest by signing a $40,000-per-year contract with the Windsor sheriff.
The Windsor sheriff is also now staffing security at the Orange County courthouse in Chelsea and at the Barre courthouse in Washington County and filling in at the St. Johnsbury courthouse in Caledonia County. Last summer for the first time the Windsor sheriff provided security at the Tunbridge World’s Fair.
Along with the increased staff and coverage, the department’s activity log has risen, too. The Windsor sheriff logged 6,524 “cases” — a combination of calls for service and traffic stops — in 2024, up from 4,326 in 2023 and 2,375 in 2022. Palmer estimates that in the past two years “we’ve taken 30 guns off the streets,” seized from felons who are prohibited to be in possession of firearms or from defendants charged with major drug offenses.
The expansion has won mostly plaudits from others in the law enforcement community, from neighboring police departments, the county prosecutor and the court system alike.
Ward Goodenough, Windsor County state’s attorney, called Palmer “very responsive” and said the sheriff “has a real community focus” that plays out in ways that are not officially required in the job description.
The Windsor County prosecutor recalls how the sheriff once acted quickly to get him out of a jam.
“We had a witness of a pretty serious crime who at the last minute didn’t have a ride to the courthouse where we needed her testimony. Ryan agreed to pick her up at home, drive to the courthouse, stay there with her throughout the proceeding and then take her home. He even bought her lunch,” Goodenough related.
“Without her testimony the criminal case could have fallen apart,” Goodenough said, adding that Palmer was willing to carve out a morning from his regular duties “even though it wasn’t one of his cases.”
Windsor County’s social service organizations, which often deal with the “justice involved” population — people on probation or under court-ordered supervision — are likewise favorably impressed.
Sydney Sprague, program director at Windsor Youth Services, a residential program under the state’s Department of Children and Families for at-risk teenagers in Proctorsville, Vt., said Palmer called the organization shortly after he became sheriff in 2023 to propose setting up quarterly dinners between sheriff’s deputies and the house’s half-dozen teen residents.
Sprague said the intent of dinners is to reach out to the youths, several of whom have had brushes with the law to show them that “law enforcement are positive people.” Deputies bring takeout or homemade dinners and “just hang out, playing video games or flag football.”
“Some of the kids have had bad experiences with the police, so it’s great when they can interact with police officers in a good light and when they are not in trouble,” Sprague said, describing Palmer’s homemade mac and cheese as “a particular favorite” among the dinner meals.
Windsor sheriffs are also now providing contract security to the state’s division of Buildings and General Services, which oversees offices where probation, parole, and children and family services are located. It is not unusual for there to be the need for security to be on hand during a probation meeting or child custody issue at DCF where tempers can flair, said Bill McSalis, director of safety and security at BGS.
Palmer “wants to accommodate our requests even when others can’t or won’t,” said McSalis. “Some sheriffs don’t want to get involved in screening people or have the bandwidth. They’d rather take an overtime highway project. There were a couple sheriffs’ departments that were always our go-to guys. But Ryan has matched or even surpassed what they are able to do,” McSalis marveled.
Not everyone in law enforcement is impressed with Palmer’s expansion of the Windsor department, however.
George Contois, sheriff of Orange County, has not welcomed what he sees as Palmer capitalizing upon Orange County’s loss of deputies by contracting with the Orange County towns of Brookfield, Tunbridge, Chelsea and, now, Strafford, in addition to providing security at the courthouse and serving civil warrants.
In a letter to Gov. Phil Scott last month, Contois called the Windsor sheriffs being awarded the security contract for the Chelsea courthouse a “coup” which “caused great financial and personal damage to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department” and argued it violated state statues that require the courthouse security to be handled by the domicile county’s jurisdiction.
(A state courts administrator rejected Contois’ interpretation of the statute, saying that while it does require courthouses to have security provided by the sheriff, it nonetheless does not bar awarding the contract to another county’s sheriff).
Contois, declined to comment, saying he is “trying to lay this to rest.”
A self-acknowledged pol — “I’m a politician, so I can never do enough talking,” Palmer, who is also a Windsor Selectboard member, joked to parents at White River Valley High School in South Royalton earlier this month during a “community conversation” on school safety — the Windsor County sheriff says he likes to be out in the community meeting people, whether it is addressing community groups or handing out fistfuls of Skittles and Kit Kats to costumed kids on Halloween.
“You want to sit up front, buddy? Hop in,” Palmer offered to a little boy dressed as Captain America who unbidden was already trying to climb into the open door of the police cruiser’s cab at Hartland’s Halloween parade.
“Or maybe you want to sit in the back behind the bars? Some people choose that,” said Palmer, referring to the usual passengers.
As trick-or-treaters gawked at the menacing black police cruiser with shopping bags of candy from Price Chopper piled on its back hatch, Palmer was in his element, a “Windsor boy,” as he calls himself, chatting with parents he knows on first-name basis.
“You guys are doing a good job,” shouted one admiring passerby. “You’re everywhere now.”
Things weren’t always looking so good for Palmer.
Palmer has recovered from a near career-crippling incident in 2014 when, as a Windsor police officer, he shot a drug suspect who was attempting to flee from a sting operation in Windsor that had gone awry. (The suspect was not gravely injured and recovered.) Palmer, in a case handled by the Vermont Attorney General’s Office, was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and reckless endangerment, but a jury acquitted him after deliberating for six hours.
Retreating to Louisville, Ky., to get away and recover from the ordeal, the Windsor native returned to the Upper Valley. But he found that local police departments weren’t exactly opening their doors to welcome him home.
“It was a hard time,” said Palmer, who believes the experience on the other side of the criminal justice system has made him a more empathetic police officer and smoothed his former rough edges.
He got a job on the overnight shift with the Ludlow Police Department and, in 2022, decided to run for Windsor County sheriff on the Democratic ticket, even though he had previously voted for Donald Trump.
Flashes of the old sharp-tongued Palmer can still flare up, however.
During a meeting of the Strafford Selectboard in December when, weighing whether to contract with the Windsor sheriff or the Orange sheriff to provide town police coverage, an annoyed Palmer snapped at Contois, chastising him for his deputies only “stopping two cars in one year.”
Palmer’s criticism drew a quick rebuke from Selectboard Chairwoman Toni Pippy.
“You’re talking over my meeting, please,” Pippy admonished Palmer.
Chastened, Palmer apologized to everyone for “getting a little spicy.”
Pippy, later said the Selectboard decided to swing Strafford’s contract to the Windsor sheriff because they were impressed with the depth of training of the department’s deputies and the resources at its disposal.
“They have a drug recognition officer, a certified school resource officer, a firearm instructor, FBI certifications,” Pippy said, ticking off examples of the Windsor department’s certifications. “The list goes on and on. Their contract certifications are far better than what Orange could provide.”
Two weeks into the contract, Pippy said she already sees a difference.
“Ryan’s team has been very visible in town,” she said.
Contact John Lippman at jlippman@vnews.com.