Page 52 - 2025 Brighton VT Annual Report

ESSEX COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPT. 91Court House Dr
STATE OF VERMONT Guildhall, VT 05905
Tel:(802) 676-3500
Trevor Colby
Sheriff Fax:(802) 676-3400

Essex County Sheriff's Department Report to Brighton Select Board for
the period of January 01, 2025 to December 31, 2025

During calendar years 2020-2022, the department averaged between 8,600 and 9,000 hours each year.
In 2023, we started trying to fulfill an additional 3,000 hours a year to cover Brighton and Canaan. In
2023, we hit 10,400 hours. In 2024, we reached 11,300 hours of officer time serving on the department.
In 2025, we achieved another increase in staff coverage to 12,046 hours, even with staff turnover of
two officers late in 2024. Billing hours to towns in 2025 might appear low, but that is because we have
been able to fund a considerable amount of officer training through grants. The COPS grant this year
has funded 1,300 hours of officer FTO training. The COPS grant ends in August and that officer time
will shift to contract time. I would like the towns to understand the amount of time it takes to recruit
and train officers to increase coverage. If you look at the hours above in 2025, we achieved the
additional 3,000 hours requested in 2023, but 2025 had 12 months of officers in training who were
directly supervised by another officer.

Field training(FTO) is a period of time where an officer has provisional certification and must be with
another officer at all times to learn specific job tasks. Deputy Thomas and I serve as Field Training
officers. One officer was already working part-time in FTO training and transitioned to full-time and
completed his FTO training in May of 2025. We sent 2 officers to training at the police academy in
March. One of those officers just completed the FTO program, and we are waiting on his certification
approval from the academy. Once that certification is approved, it will be the first time in the 15 years
that I have been Sheriff that we will have had 5 full-time certified officers on staff. We also have 5
part-time certified officers on staff. Our greatest deficit currently is in administration. We anticipate
our court officer who has been assisting in covering the financial management of the department will
continue to increase hours covering the office administration functions.

During 2025 in Brighton, more that 350 incidents were logged; over 210 were traffic tickets or warnings
and over 140 were calls for service. In 2025, 83 traffic tickets were issued in Brighton, or roughly 28%
of all tickets issued by the department.

During 2025, the Sheriff’s Department officers throughout the county responded to over 1300 incidents;
of those, 557 were calls for service. Our officers issued over 710 tickets and warnings during traffic
stops. From those stops, we issued over 293 traffic citations and 448 warnings. Our Department
continues to contract to provide Special Investigations Unit Services for the Essex county cases of
sexual assault and child abuse, patrolling V.A.S.T. trails, conducting Occupant Safety Checks,
distracted driving patrols, and DUI patrols under grants from the Vermont Highway Safety Office, and
patrolling through grants from the Department of Public Safety and the Division of Homeland Security.
In 2025, grants provided over 3,116 hours of services throughout the county. Our court security
contract for 2025 continues to be our largest contract at 2,770 hours. We are continuing to increase our
coverage hours to meet the requests of our contracting towns.

Thank you for your continued support,

Sheriff Trevor Colby

50 Town of Brighton, VT