— By Matt Golec

2/12/25

White River Junction, VT

To the 40 or so people gathered at the Hartford Police Department’s first data sharing meeting on Tuesday morning, Chief Greg Sheldon had a simple message: We need your help.

The majority of police calls involve non-criminal issues such mental health, substance use, or homelessness, he explained. Officers will always respond, but their training is in law enforcement.

If police arrest somebody three or four times a month for stealing, that might look good on paper, Sheldon said. “But are we solving the underlying problem of why they are committing that retail theft?”

That’s where HartStat—and its attendees—come in. Many of them are from local social service agencies, such as HCRS or the Clara Martin Center, and Hartford is hoping that data-sharing meetings like this one can point private and public agencies toward the people who most need their services.

“They deserve a chance to be successful members of our community,” Sheldon said.

Hartford’s Crime/Data Analyst Amie Wunderlich ran through a series of slides that showed police activity by location, time, and individual. While the department is still setting baselines before making any big data pronouncements, they reviewed some ‘hot spots,’ such as the Co-op on Maple Street and White River Inn and Suites, where police have made several visits.

Amie Wunderlich presents police data at the first HartStat meeting at the Hartford Police Department on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. All photos by Matt Golec.

Officials also named individuals with whom police interact repeatedly, but meeting organizers stressed they weren’t doing this to shame them. Instead, they hope agency representatives gathered together yesterday will recognize these “high-utilizer individuals” so they can reach out to them with assistance.

“That's why we are inviting and asking you guys to work with us, so that we can start helping those folks for their benefit, for the community's benefit,” Wunderlich explained. “And again, to allow our officers to be responding to the things that they're meant to be doing.”

When Wunderlich’s presentation concluded, most attendees stuck around, chatting with the officers or conversing in small groups. It made Chief Sheldon happy; forging in-person connections across agencies was a big goal for the program.

“This is where the meeting really happens,” he said.

HartStat attendees chat after the program’s first meeting with Lt. Karl Ebbighausen (left), Chief Greg Sheldon (second from right), Amie Wunderlich (far right), and each other.

Sheldon will be retiring at the end of the month—he’ll be replaced as chief by Lt. Commander Constance “Connie” Kelley—but he says HartStat has the support of the town manager and Selectboard, and it will continue.

It seems to be on good footing. Lt. Karl Ebbighausen, who runs the Community Outreach Division, guides the program with Wunderlich, and they’re working with a substance use responder from Clara Martin and an HCRS police social worker, both embedded within the department.

Emily Zanleoni, executive director of the Hartford Community Coalition, was amazed at how many police calls are non-crime related. “Without the data, we don’t know any better,” she said.

HCC does a lot with kids, and while HartStat won’t disclose data about minors, Zanleoni still found the meeting relevant.

“Every single one of those people were kids at some point,” she said.