Burlington Police Chief Schirling to retire

Michael Schirling was a life saver his first week on the job.

A few minutes after Schirling announced his retirement Tuesday, his first training officer at Burlington Police shared how the rookie officer revived an unresponsive man with CPR in Battery Park.

"Mike jumped right in," said Sonny Provetto, a former Burlington and Vermont State Police officer. "He brought the guy right back."

Schirling has pretty much seen it all in his 25 year police career. It will come to a close June 30 when he retires as chief of Vermont's largest municipal police department.

"Michael Schirling has been one of the great chiefs of the proud, 150-year-old Burlington Police Department," Mayor Miro Weinberger said.

"As chief, he modernized the department, deepened its community ties, and confronted squarely growing social challenges." he said.

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The city plans to begin an immediate search with the intent of having a replacement by the time Schirling departs in 21/2 months.

Weinberger said he expects to assemble a search committee composed of individuals representing the diversity of the city. He said he expects a smooth transition.

Schirling said there is substantial talent within the department to find a new chief, and while he might favor an internal selection, he noted there are qualified people outside the department to move forward.

The Burlington Free Press reported Schirling's retirement early Tuesday afternoon shortly before he told his employees and held a news conference.

Making a difference

Schirling, 45, said he is unsure what the next step will be in his life. He said he had always noted 2015 would be his final year.

"It's not the years that get you. It's the miles," Schirling said at a news conference.

He noted that the stress, working different shifts and dealing with the social, mental and legal problems of others all take their toll.

Schirling recalled when he started there was a message board for each officer at the police station at 82 South Winooski Ave. He said officers once a day would collect the messages scribbled by the emergency dispatchers and respond to them.

Today with cellphones, tweets, social media and more, police are bombarded, he said.

"Nothing ever shuts off," the chief noted.

But there are plenty rewards, including 137 department employees that are out on the front lines serving the community around the clock. He noted the families of those police employees also needed to be thanked.

He downplayed his role, noting they were responding to the calls for service.

Schirling noted there is only one reported homicide during his time as chief that remains unsolved — and he hopes detectives can wrap that up.

A Burlington man was fatally shot just inside his front door in early January on Greene Street. The case is believed to be drug-related.

Schirling also had to deal with one fatal police shooting in the New North End in 1993. A disturb man was killed when he wielded a shovel at two officers. The police were cleared of any wrong doing, but it was a chance for the department to look at how it dealt with mental health cases.

The chief also had to deal with various protests, marches and rallies of all sizes and shapes during his tenure. In a few cases there were clashes between protesters and police. One clash came after a multi-day Occupy Burlington encampment at City Hall Park in the fall of 2011 that police ended shortly after a transient fatally shot himself in the head.

The mayor noted "Burlington expects a lot from it police chiefs." There often is tension. Yet Schirling had the right makeup for the job and could navigate through the issues, the mayor said.

Starting his career

Schirling, at age 19, began his law enforcement career in August 1989 as a part-time officer in Burlington, while going full time to the University of Vermont.

Schirling joked at the news conference it was partly because of his career as an auxiliary officer that Burlington no longer hires officers as young.

He has held almost every position in the police department working his way up through the ranks to take command in 2008. The chief's job was the longest assignment.

Schirling was born, raised and schooled in Burlington. Several months after his 1992 graduation — and after the thawing of a city hiring freeze — he was sworn-in as a full-time officer.

Schirling served as a patrol officer, a detective, an investigator at the Chittenden Unit for Special Investigations (CUSI) and eventually as director.

He was a co-founder and commander of the Vermont Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. He returned to uniform and was assigned as a patrol lieutenant in the city's Old North End. He was later appointed the department's administrative lieutenant and eventually deputy chief.

Schirling's public safety career began in high school when he was a junior member of Colchester Rescue in 1986 and was hired a year later as an emergency part-time dispatcher for the town of Colchester. He also did a stint with Winooski police department.

Besides his undergraduate degree in political science, Schirling has a graduate degree from UVM in education. He and his wife, Kathy, have two children.

Schirling also has served as an instructor for a wide range of topics, including sexual assault investigation, interviewing, computer and Internet investigations, computer forensics and criminal law.

Burlington Police have won four major awards from the International Association of Chiefs of Police for work in community policing, civil rights, and excellence in both law enforcement and victim services.

Under Schirling's tenure as chief, the department completed a citywide reassessment of community policing strategy, crafted a number of recruitment and retention strategies to bolster staffing and both designed and implemented a computer aided dispatch and records management system.

The department also implemented online crime reporting, established the Community Police Academy and often hosted community forums and discussions, which includes "Coffee with the Chief" events and an annual Community Barbecue and Open House.

Contact Mike Donoghue at 660-1845 or mdonoghue@freepressmedia.com. Follow Mike on twitter at www.twitter.com/FreepsMikeD.