Colchester police chief 1st female head of VT Chiefs Association

Colchester Police Chief Jennifer Morrison said she's never felt held back by her gender as a law enforcement officer in Vermont. 

As one of two female police chiefs in the state — the other is Lianne Tuomey at the University of Vermont Police Department — Morrison said she has always felt supported by her male and female colleagues. 

"I don't perceive that I've received anything but support," Morrison said. "My gender has never, in my estimation, slowed me down in my career." 

Morrison was elected last week as the first female police chief to serve as president of the Vermont Association of Chiefs of Police. She will serve for one year. 

Morrison said this week that she feels "honored to lead such a prestigious organization." 

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Morrison has been chief of the Colchester Police Department since July 2013. Before then, she spent almost 23 years at the Burlington Police Department. 

"Chief Morrison has been a leader throughout her career and Colchester is proud of this most recent accomplishment," said Colchester Town Manager Dawn Francis. 

Organizations throughout the country, including the National Association of Chiefs of Police and the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives, say they do not have statistics on how many female police chiefs there are in the U.S.

However, a survey from 2013 conducted by the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives and the International Association of Chiefs of Police found 169 women leading the more than 1,500 law enforcement agencies across the U.S. that responded to the survey.

Morrison compared leading the Vermont Association of Chiefs of Police to being captain of a sports team. She said much of her role will be helping to coordinate police chiefs so they are all speaking with one voice on important issues.

"Everybody who is on the executive board is very engaged in their communities already and is very concerned with the professionalism of Vermont policing," Morrison said. "It's not heavy lifting." 

The group has yet to finalize its priorities for the next year, but Morrison said it will most likely include goals around improving police interactions with people experiencing mental health crises and discussions around drug addiction and crimes that happen as a result of those addictions.

Morrison said marijuana legalization will also continue to be "of tremendous importance" to the group, which opposes legalization currently.

"We feel it's our obligation to protect our communities from what is undoubtedly going to be a lot of unintended consequences," Morrison said. "We feel very strongly, very passionately that this is wrong for Vermont at this point in time, and we certainly won't back down from that." 

Morrison said she hopes the group can collaborate with lawmakers.

"We want to be involved in those conversations at the beginning, not at the end," Morrison said. She added, "One of those things we're going to be keeping a keen eye for is no more unfunded mandates. No more unfunded training or equipment or other mandates." 

Contact Elizabeth Murray at 651-4835 or emurray@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizMurrayBFP.